March 2025 Newsletter

The United States Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey indicates that about 1 in 4 people — approximately over 27,000,000 Americans — will experience long COVID.
 
Awareness of long COVID is growing. A recent survey among over 10,000 adults in February 2024 found that 50% of Americans say it’s extremely or very important for medical researchers and healthcare providers to understand and treat long COVID. An increase in public awareness is positive, but there is still much to be done.

The Buffalo News reported on one patient’s experience with long COVID and UBMD’s Long COVID Recovery Center. Since 2022, more than 1,500 patients have helped contribute to advancing long COVID research in Western New York and 300 patients have been supported at the Recovery Center. 

It’s been five years since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, but many patients with long COVID have yet to find meaningful recovery. Roughly 18 million people are estimated to be living with the aftermath of catching the COVID-19 virus.
 
There are still no approved treatments for long COVID, a condition that can span many organ systems and exhibit various symptoms. For many patients, the day-to-day reality of finding clinicians that are well-versed in long COVID is a challenge, and much of the progress being made is symptom management. As patients push forward, their number one priority is placing stress on the importance of clinical trials and additional funding for continued research.

Five years after the initial wave of COVID-19, its long-term effects continue to impact patient recovery, particularly those with severe COVID-19 infections or limited health care access. Researchers followed over 800 patients with long COVID between 2020 and 2022 and found that nearly three-quarters of the patients recovered within 100 days, but many were found to endure long COVID for even longer, specifically those with severe COVID-19 infections.

Researchers also studied data from over 2.6 million patients with COVID-19 and discovered that residents of rural areas face a significantly higher risk of death after COVID-19 infection. Even after consideration of vaccination status, pre-existing conditions, and different strains of COVID-19, rural patients consistently exhibited higher mortality rates up to 2 years post-infection.
 
Together, these findings reinforce that while COVID-19 is no longer an active public health emergency, it remains a public health concern with long-term consequences.

The RECOVER study team investigated how a person’s sex (defined as biological sex assigned at birth) impacted their chance of developing long COVID. To better understand the impact, researchers studied various factors, including:

• a person’s age
• whether a female participant is still menstruating or has gone through menopause
• a person’s other health conditions
• a person’s COVID-19 vaccination status
• which COVID-19 variant a person was infected with
• severity of a person’s COVID-19 infection
• whether a person was hospitalized during their COVID-19 infection

Researchers found that women were more likely to develop long COVID than men, specifically those between 40 and 54 years old who had not gone through menopause. However, for women between the ages of 18 and 39, sex did not present a higher risk of developing long COVID.

A better understanding of sex-specific long COVID risk can help identify which patients may develop long COVID, develop potential treatments that are tailored for specific populations, and improve care for people living with long COVID.

Follow us to stay in the loop about the latest long COVID news and for long COVID updates in Western New York.

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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.

Contact us: (716) 382 - 1808 / ubcov@buffalo.edu