Publication date: Oct 10, 2024

“To better understand whether an ongoing infection is behind some people’s long COVID symptoms, Swank, Walt and other researchers are currently conducting follow-up studies. The team found evidence of persistent infection in 43% of participants with multiple symptoms of long COVID. They’re analyzing blood samples and symptom data in larger groups of patients, including people of wide age ranges and those with compromised immune symptoms. “For example, another possible cause of long-COVID symptoms could be that the virus harms the immune system, causing immune dysfunction to continue after the virus is cleared. “These types of studies are critical to help investigators better understand the mechanisms underlying long COVIDwhich will help bring us closer to identifying the right targets for treatment. This way, they can also see if some people are more likely to have persistent virus in the body. With a highly sensitive test they developed, researchers looked for whole and partial proteins from the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Semantics