Chennai: A latest research has claimed that Covid-19 survivors—including those not sick enough to be hospitalised—have an increased risk of death in the six months following diagnosis with the virus.

The research, claimed as the largest comprehensive study of long Covid-19 to date, was published in the journal Nature on Thursday.

Researchers said it reveals the massive burden this disease is likely to place on the world’s population in the coming years.

According to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in the US, they have also have catalogued the numerous diseases associated with Covid-19, providing a big-picture overview of the long-term complications of COVID-19.

They confirmed that, despite being initially a respiratory virus, long Covid-19 can affect nearly every organ system in the body.

Study senior author Ziyad Al-Aly, an assistant professor of medicine at Washington University School of Medicine, said, ‘Our study demonstrates that up to six months after diagnosis, the risk of death following even a mild case of COVID-19 is not trivial and increases with disease severity.’

‘Physicians must be vigilant in evaluating people who have had Covid-19. These patients will need integrated, multidisciplinary care,’ he added.

The study involved more than 87,000 Covid patients and nearly five million control patients.

The researchers were able to calculate the potential scale of the problems first glimpsed from anecdotal accounts and smaller studies that hinted at the wide-ranging side effects of surviving Covid-19.