Long Cold: Study Finds Other Illnesses Can Have Long-Term Symptoms

COVID isn’t the only respiratory infection that carries long-term symptoms. A new study finds colds and flu could do the same.

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Long COVID has been studied and discussed for years since the pandemic, but now, researchers from Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) have discovered that common illnesses associated with the cold weather season can leave us with long-lasting symptoms.

Researchers think their findings may explain those who report long-term symptoms after an acute respiratory infection yet test negative for COVID-19.

The study was published in early October in the Lancet’s eClinicalMedicine journal.

Long-Term Cold Symptoms

Researchers discovered that patients with acute respiratory infections who tested negative for COVID-19 may still experience long-term symptoms for at least a month after infection. These symptoms include stomach pain, coughing, and diarrhea.

This study ran from May 2020 to Oct. 2021 and involved more than 10,000 identified cases of acute respiratory infection confirmed as COVID-19. It also included cases where patients were infected but tested negative for COVID.

According to researchers, both types of infection were associated with increased prevalence and severity of long-term symptoms compared with no infection.

“Our findings may chime with the experience of people who have struggled with prolonged symptoms after having a respiratory infection despite testing negative for COVID-19 on a nose or throat swab,” professor Adrian Martineau, chief investigator of COVIDENCE UK and clinical professor of respiratory infection and immunity at Queen Mary University of London, said in a press statement.

Increased Severity More Likely to Be Long COVID

Those positive for COVID were observed to have increased odds of experiencing long-COVID symptoms like problems with taste or smell and lightheadedness or dizziness compared to those with respiratory infection who tested negative.

Researchers found that as severity increased, study participants were more likely to report having long COVID, ranging from nearly 6 percent in the mild category to about 50 percent of those classified as severe.

In either group, symptoms were often present at follow-up for at least four weeks and up to 12 weeks. This was the case, especially if symptoms were severe, which they were in 22 percent of participants.

When comparing participant characteristics across the three categories of severity, researchers observed that as symptom severity increased (from moderate to severe), those affected were more likely to be female, of lower economic status, frontline workers, overweight or obese, and to have other chronic health conditions.