A new reportopens in a new tab or window from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) offers a new definition of long COVID in an effort to streamline the diagnosis and treatment of the condition, which has serious medical, social, and economic consequences for patients, according to the authoring committee.
Long COVID should now be defined as an infection-related chronic condition that occurs after COVID-19 and remains present for at least 3 months “as a continuous, relapsing and remitting, or progressive disease state that affects one or more organ systems,” the committee wrote. The definition does not require laboratory confirmation or other proof of initial infection.