Al-Aly Z, Davis H, McCorkell L, Soares L, Wulf-Hanson S, Iwasaki A, Topol EJ, et al.
Nature medicine. Date of publication 2024 Aug 1;volume 30(8):2148-2164.
1. Nat Med. 2024 Aug;30(8):2148-2164. doi: 10.1038/s41591-024-03173-6. Epub 2024
Aug 9.
Long COVID science, research and policy.
Al-Aly Z(1)(2), Davis H(3), McCorkell L(3), Soares L(3), Wulf-Hanson S(4),
Iwasaki A(5)(6), Topol EJ(7).
Author information:
(1)VA St. Louis Health Care System, Saint Louis, MO, USA. zalaly@gmail.com.
(2)Washington University in St. Louis, Saint Louis, MO, USA. zalaly@gmail.com.
(3)Patient-led Research Collaborative, Calabasas, CA, USA.
(4)University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
(5)Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
(6)Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, MD, USA.
(7)Scripps Institute, San Diego, California, CA, USA.
Long COVID represents the constellation of post-acute and long-term health
effects caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection; it is a complex, multisystem disorder
that can affect nearly every organ system and can be severely disabling. The
cumulative global incidence of long COVID is around 400 million individuals,
which is estimated to have an annual economic impact of approximately $1
trillion-equivalent to about 1% of the global economy. Several mechanistic
pathways are implicated in long COVID, including viral persistence, immune
dysregulation, mitochondrial dysfunction, complement dysregulation, endothelial
inflammation and microbiome dysbiosis. Long COVID can have devastating impacts
on individual lives and, due to its complexity and prevalence, it also has major
ramifications for health systems and economies, even threatening progress toward
achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Addressing the challenge of long
COVID requires an ambitious and coordinated-but so far absent-global research
and policy response strategy. In this interdisciplinary review, we provide a
synthesis of the state of scientific evidence on long COVID, assess the impacts
of long COVID on human health, health systems, the economy and global health
metrics, and provide a forward-looking research and policy roadmap.
© 2024. This is a U.S. Government work and not under copyright protection in the
US; foreign copyright protection may apply.
DOI: 10.1038/s41591-024-03173-6
PMID: 39122965 [Indexed for MEDLINE]
