Post Covid-19 Syndrome: A Cross Sectional Study in Baghdad

Many patients are being released from hospitals without follow up and thorough assessment of their recovery.Iraq is one of the countries that were hit hard by this novel disease, but till now there is little literature on the sequelae of this illness after recovery. The aim of our study is to assess the prevalence of post covid 19 syndrome and the characteristics of post covid 19 symptoms. A cross sectional study using interview based questionnaires of 165 recovered covid 19 subjects (mean age 37±14)and 67% of them were female. The prevalence of post covid 19 in the study sample was (66.7%), out of them (52.7%) reported acute post covid 19 symptoms, (18.2%) reported long post covid symptoms, and (29.1%) reported persistent post covid 19 symptoms. The most frequently reported symptom was fatigue (29%) followed by hair loss (23%) and anosmia/ parosmia (21.2%). All of the patients who were in critical condition during the illness developed post covid 19 syndrome. So a prolonged follow up of the recovered patients seems necessary, regardless of their initial clinical presentation.