Long COVID appears to be driven by ‘long infection.’ Here’s what the science says

Medical Xpress November 29, 2024
Brendan Crabb, Gabriela Khoury and Michelle Scoullar, The Conversation

Around 5%–10% of people with COVID infections go on to experience long COVID, with symptoms lasting three months or more.

Researchers have proposed several biological mechanisms to explain long COVID. However, in a perspective article published in the latest Medical Journal of Australia, we argue that much, if not all, long COVID appears to be driven by the virus itself persisting in the body.

Since relatively early in the pandemic, there has been a recognition that in some people, SARS-CoV-2—or at least remnants of the virus—could stay in various tissues and organs for extended periods. This theory is known as “viral persistence.”

While the long-term presence of residual viral fragments in some people’s bodies is now well established, what remains...

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