GAINESVILLE, Fla. – A University of Florida study is shedding new light on the reason people who recover from COVID-19 are still at an increased death even a year later.
Using biomarkers, the UF team found that people who had higher levels of inflammation during illness were 60 percent more likely to die within a year after infection compared to those who had lower levels of inflammation.
The study suggests that the health effects from such a severe inflammatory response can persist long after patients recover.
”I think we have to re-conceptualize Covid as both an acute disease and potentially a chronic disease. That we have this acute episode but then, because of inflammation, at least inflammation for sure, and some other things, then we see these downstream problems,” said Dr. Arch Mainous, lead investigator.
The UF study also found that prescribing anti-inflammatory medications at the time of hospital discharge lowered the risk of post-illness mortality in patients with severe COVID.
And COVID-19 may have led to a spike in antibiotic resistance.
A new analysis found the level of hospital-acquired antibiotic-resistant infections increased in the U.S. during the pandemic and was highest among patients with COVID.
Researchers believe a surge in antibiotic prescribing in hospitals contributed to the increase, along with longer hospital stays and secondary bacterial and fungal infections among patients with severe COVID.
Scientists said the use of immune-suppressing agents may have also played a part in the increase in hospital-acquired antibiotic resistance.