Most of the people who suffered from
COVID-19 fully recovered, but approximately 10-20% of them developed a wide variety of symptoms after they recover from their initial illness.
Long COVID can develop at any patient; however, several studies suggest that the development of
Long Covid syndrome may be linked to severity of acute illness. Some of the risk factors are hospitalization (with
mechanical ventilation), Intensive Care Unit admission, age (over 50 years), gender (female) and comorbidities. Since the precise mechanism of
Long COVID has not been clarified, neither the management of Long
COVID-19 syndrome has been solved yet. Promising results have been published with
vaccines as they effectively reduced the risk of
Long COVID; however, other data suggest that vaccination results only partial protection in the post-acute phase of the disease. Recently, the orally effective
antiviral agents (
Paxlovid,
molnupiravir) are preferred for outpatient management, and they highly reduce the progression of mild-to-moderate
COVID-19 to severe one, and consequently, might reduce the development of
Long COVID. Finally, recently, several clinical trials are in progress with either dietary supplements or drugs with different mechanisms of action. Additional information on the precise mechanisms, risk factors of
Long COVID may result in successful preventive and therapeutic management of
Long Covid 19 syndrome.