40% COVID-recovered Patients are having Post-COVID Symptoms, AIG Survey finds

In India, as we clocked over 3 crore COVID recoveries, the incidence of Post-COVID symptoms is noticeably increasing across the country. AIG Hospitals – one of the country’s largest super specialty Hospitals, recently carried out a PAN India online survey to understand the true picture of such Post-COVID illnesses. The most important result was that over 40% of COVID recovered patients said that they are still having symptoms, out of which weakness/fatigue was reported the maximum. Many patients also reported newer symptoms like Insomnia, Neuropsychiatric issues among others.

“We were seeing many such Post-COVID patients in our hospital, but this survey gave us the true picture of this Post-COVID Syndrome. If this is an indication to go by then we are looking at over 1 crore people in India who have recovered from COVID-19 but are still having certain symptoms,” said Dr. D Nageshwar Reddy, Chairman, AIG Hospitals.

Dr. Reddy further added that “We also asked in our survey about the usage of steroids in these patients during their COVID-19 treatment and found out that 74% hospitalized patients received steroids but 34% required oxygen. We believe there is some correlation between irrational use of steroids and post COVID complications because as per the guidelines we are supposed to give steroids to only those COVID patients who require Oxygen. Further research will be required to ascertain the steroids.”

Present during the occasion, Chief Guest, Shri Narsing Rao, Principal Secretary to the CM of Telangana said, “It is a growing challenge and needs to be addressed immediately from all relevant stakeholders. We are keeping a close eye on this situation as it unfolds. It is commendable on part of AIG Hospitals to come up with such an initiative, a first-of-its-kind dedicated Post-COVID Care Clinic so early and showing the way ahead in managing these Post-COVID cases. It will be important to see what newer protocols will be required for these patients and it is our cumulative responsibility to help in this regard.”

Looking at the urgent need to address this pertinent issue of Post-COVID complications, AIG Hospitals today announced the launch of India’s first dedicated Post-COVID Care Clinic. The clinic will comprise of a multidisciplinary team with experts from Internal Medicine, Cardiology, Gastroenterology, Neurology, Nephrology, Rheumatology, Psychiatry, Orthopedics, among others providing comprehensive care. The objective is to evaluate and manage these patients from a holistic point of view.

The finding of the AIG COVID Survey is now being published as a research report currently available as a pre-print.