Not just COVID: Cold, flu may lead to longer symptoms, study finds

The recent study suggests that there may be longer health impacts associated with other respiratory illnesses besides COVID that have gone unrecognized..

Cold and flu symptoms can potentially last four weeks or more after infection, according to new research.

The study, led by Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), was published in the Lancet’s EClinicalMedicine journal Friday.

Researchers compared long-term symptoms between long COVID sufferers and those infected with other respiratory illnesses, such as pneumonia, influenza, bronchitis and the common cold. Out of 16 symptoms observed, some of the most common reported were coughs, stomach pain and troubling sleeping after initial infection.

The findings suggest that there may be long-term health impacts associated with other respiratory illnesses besides COVID, which have gone unrecognized, the study says.

“The scale and fast spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, alongside a lower case–fatality ratio than previous coronavirus pandemics, has resulted in hundreds of millions of survivors globally over just a few years, focusing attention on their post-COVID experience,” the study says.

However, while the findings point to possible long-term health impacts following a common cold or flu, the evidence does not yet suggest that symptoms have the same severity or duration as long COVID.

Long-term symptoms associated with a non-COVID respiratory illness appeared to differ a bit from long COVID symptoms, with the latter reporting greater challenges with taste and smell, as well as lightheadedness and dizziness.

The former group also reported a smaller prevalence of muscle or joint pain and hair loss.