MedPage Today Long-term effects from influenza affect the respiratory system, long COVID is multisystemic.
In patients hospitalized for either COVID-19 or seasonal influenza, rates of death, negative effects on long-term health, and hospital readmissions were high, but less so for the flu patients, a comparative analysis showed.
Over 18 months of follow-up, patients hospitalized with COVID had an increased risk of death compared with those hospitalized for influenza (HR 1.51, 95% CI 1.45-1.58), translating into an excess death rate of 8.62 per 100 persons, reported Ziyad Al-Aly, MD, of the VA St. Louis Health Care System and Washington University in St. Louis, and colleagues in Lancet Infectious Diseases. In addition, COVID was associated with a significantly increased risk of 64 of 94 prespecified health outcomes, including cardiovascular outcomes, coagulation and hematological outcomes, fatigue, gastrointestinal outcomes, kidney outcomes, mental health outcomes, metabolic outcomes, musculoskeletal outcomes, neurological outcomes, and pulmonary outcomes.