- Wuhan study on long-term effects of Long Covid
- RCEP ties China into regional free trade for first time
- Putin and Xi expand friendship
- Scholz cautious with China criticism
- Lithuania recalls diplomats
- German Frigate sails into South China Sea
- Tools: new rules for childcare leave
The dangers of Long Covid are one of the main reasons to fight the pandemic by any means necessary. The long-term effects of the infection could turn it into a mass disease. On an individual level, those affected suffer greatly. This also leads to a weakening of society and the economy.
Chinese scientists have now taken stock of how the long-term effects of COVID-19 have developed over the last months. The results are alarming. Some of the first wave infected in the province of Hubei are still suffering from a multitude of symptoms. Frank Sieren presents the Chinese study, that shows just how serious the chronic effects of Covid are.
Until now, there has been no free trading agreement between China, Japan, and South Korea. This will change as of January. The economic agreement RCEP was originally intended to bind the Southeast Asian states more closely to their trading partners. But it is proving to be even more valuable between the northern partners, observes Christiane Kuehl. This makes China for the first time part of a regional free trade platform. RCEP is a small miracle anyway, believes Kuehl. It brings economically successful countries like South Korea under one roof with small, bitterly poor states like Laos. The framework is even flexible enough to bring the jealous rivals China and Japan together.
Finn Mayer-Kuckuk
Feature
Long Covid: Wuhan patients still suffer
About a half of the first COVID-19 patients from Wuhan, China, are still suffering from symptoms of the disease more than a year after infection. This is the result of a study published in the medical journal The Lancet. The eleven-million metropolis in the Chinese province of Hubei is where the first cases of COVID-19 were registered in late 2019. The city is considered the epicenter of the outbreak, with more than 50,000 reported cases and a month-long, harsh lockdown that saw residents cut off from the outside world for 76 days. It is the first and most comprehensive investigation of its kind, as Wuhan was hit first.
The study, conducted by a team of researchers from Beijing Capital Medical University, draws several startling conclusions:
- 20 percent of patients were still suffering from fatigue and muscle fatigue 12 months later.
- The risk for women was 1.4 times higher than that of men.
- 17 percent of those observed reported sleep disorders.
- 11 percent observed hair loss.
- In 20 to 30 percent of patients, complications in the transfer of oxygen into the bloodstream could still be observed.
- In particular, people who underwent artificial ventilation during their hospital stay still frequently experienced shortness of breath and dyspnea after one year.
Long Covid does prove to be a long-term condition in many cases, according to the study. “Our data suggest that a full recovery after 1 year is not possible for some patients, for whom it will take longer to attain their baseline health state before COVID-19,” the authors explain. The study observed 1,276 people discharged from Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital between January and May 2020. The authors describe the study as “the largest longitudinal cohort study of hospital survivors with COVID-19”. The average age of patients was 59. They underwent pulmonary function tests, computed tomography scans of the chest area, and endurance and blood tests at 6- and 12-month intervals.
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