Publications
An Observational Multi-centric COVID-19 Sequelae Study among Health Care Workers
Ajay Kumar Shukla, Shubham Atal, Aditya Banerjee, Ratinder Jhaj, Sadasivam Balakrishnan, Preeta Kaur Chugh, Denis Xavier, Atiya Faruqui, Aakanksha Singh Introduction
On March 11, 2020, Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19), caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was declared a pandemic by World Health Organization (WHO).1 A number of those affected continue to suffer from long term effects of COVID which have been termed variously as COVID sequelae, post COVID symptoms, or post COVID condition.2–4 In India alone, 43, 045, 527 confirmed cases have been discharged as on April 19, 2022 with a recovery percentage of 98.8%,5 indicating that a large section of the population is susceptible to develop COVID sequelae.
The Government of India has issued guidelines for the management of post COVID complications affecting different systems of the body,6 and outpatient department services are being provided in various parts of India.7,8
A questionnaire-based study in China in 538 COVID-19 survivors reported general symptoms (49% of patients), symptoms related to the respiratory (39%), and cardiovascular system (13%), and psychosocial symptoms (22.7%) as the most frequent sequelae three months after discharge.2 Many other studies in different settings have found the prevalence of post-COVID sequelae from 49% to 76%.9–13 However, while health care workers (HCWs) are most liable to get exposed to this infection, to the best of our knowledge, no study has been reported from India to assess COVID-19 sequelae among HCWs. The post COVID sequelae by their very nature could effect on job performance which is especially important for HCWs. The Indian Council Medical Research (ICMR) recommended hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) for prophylaxis among asymptomatic (HCWs) involved in the care of COVID-19 cases.14 The effect of HCQ prophylaxis on the incidence of COVID sequelae also remains to be assessed.
This study was thus carried out to explore the COVID-19 sequelae and associated risk factors among HCWs. We planned to assess the nature and prevalence of medical sequelae following COVID-19 infection, as well as the association of COVID-19 manifestations and other risk factors with the COVID sequelae.
