April 2025 Newsletter
Published April 1, 2025
New research has shown that long COVID patients exhibit problems with iron levels in the blood. Over the course of one year, participants provided blood samples, allowing researchers to monitor changes in their blood post-COVID-19-infection. Iron dysregulation was found to be more profound during and following severe COVID-19, but those with mild infection also showed similar dysregulation. These findings may help explain why symptoms such as fatigue and exercise intolerance are common in long COVID patients.
Each year, members of the long COVID community can apply to serve as RECOVER Representatives. These representatives play an important role within the RECOVER initiative and provide unique perspectives, including their lived experiences and experiences of their families and communities, that inform the design of RECOVER studies. RECOVER Representatives include:
- people with Long COVID
- long COVID caregivers and advocates
- people who live or work in communities where COVID, Long COVID, or both have affected large numbers of people
“The closer we get to defining [long COVID], the closer we can get to educating physicians so that they can help us.”
University of Minnesota
Study links social inequalities to long COVID
A new study suggests that those from disadvantaged backgrounds, including lower-income households, are more likely to report persistent COVID-19 symptoms. The study also suggests that in addition to experiencing more severe illness in the acute state, disadvantaged people may also take longer to recover from COVID-19 infections.
The probability of recovery was found to be lowest in females who had the lowest education and highest deprivation level. Educated men from the lowest deprivation level had the highest chances of full recovery. “Such results suggest that social factors likely play a significant role in recovery from illness in general, not only in the case of COVID-19.”
Nature
Long COVID in transgender and gender nonbinary people in United States
New research investigated a sample of transgender and nonbinary people in the United States to estimate the prevalence of long COVID. Long COVID was found to be the most common in transmasculine and nonbinary people assigned female at birth. It was determined that long COVID is likely to exacerbate existing disparities in this population. This study paves the way for further research and surveillance concerning gender identity and chronic conditions.
Watch the latest update from American Medical Association where Akiko Iwasaki, PhD, Sterling Professor of Immunobiology at Yale University, discusses new long COVID research, emerging treatments for long haul COVID, and the latest from the Yale Long COVID clinic.
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If you had COVID-19 and would like to participate, begin filling out the questionnaire.
If you have already participated in the Long COVID Connection, feel free to share with others who may be interested.
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