Researchers from the University of Florida (UF) recently reported that people who had severe COVID-19 were likely to end up hospitalised with ongoing complications from the disease. They also found they are more than twice as likely to die in the following year than people who have not contracted the virus.

“When someone has a cold or even pneumonia, we usually think of the illness being over once the patient recovers. This is different from a chronic disease, like congestive heart failure or diabetes, which continue to affect patients after an acute episode,” said first author of these studies, Professor Arch G Mainous III.

“We may similarly need to start thinking of COVID-19 as having ongoing effects in many parts of the body after patients have recovered from the initial episode.”

He said once the importance of ‘long COVID’ after seeming ‘recovery’ is properly recognised, “we need to focus on treatments to prevent later problems, such as strokes, brain dysfunction, and especially premature death”.

But they say they can cut that death rate in half by prescribing anti-inflammatory steroids when patients are discharged.

These common steroids “lowered the increased risk of death linked to severe inflammation by 51 per cent”, write John Elder for The New Daily.

Researchers argue that “prescription of steroids upon discharge from hospital for COVID-19 should become standard” for people who have had severe symptoms.

People with mild cases of the disease should not take steroids, because they will likely interfere with recovery.

Have you or do you know anyone who has had severe COVID? How are you/they recovering? Would this be welcome news to you/them?