At the end of July 2022, 4,593 patients with long-term Covid symptoms had been treated in hospital in Austria. Of these, 4.2 percent of those affected died during their admission or twelve percent of the 590 intensive care patients.
This is apparent from a fact sheet from Gesundheit Österreich GmbH (GÖG). The validity of the data is still limited as the diagnosis “post-Covid-19 condition, unspecified” was not introduced until May.
But what appears from the partially outdated figures: Those long Covid patients in intensive care with their original Covid 19 disease “had a higher risk of being hospitalized with post-Covid,” emphasized Florian Trauner of the GÖG. This risk was 6.7 percent compared to 1.8 percent for those affected without a previous intensive care stay.
Video: Millions of people suffer from prolonged Covid symptoms
balanced gender ratio
The gender ratio of all hospitalized persons with Post Covid is balanced in Austria. However, 64 percent of intensive care patients were male, which in turn matches the Covid 19 hospitalizations, the public health expert said.
More interpretations of the figures are not “yet” possible. All analyzes should be interpreted with caution as the diagnosis was only recently introduced. Since May, an existing post-Covid-19 condition must be coded as a secondary diagnosis for hospitalizations where at least one of the registered diagnoses (main or secondary diagnoses) is related to an already recovered Covid-19 disease. However, the code will not apply if Covid-19 is still present.
Contrary to the Ministry of Health’s recommendations to only code Post Covid as a secondary diagnosis, this was noted as the main diagnosis in nearly 29 percent of cases. The diagnosis can be made retrospectively and was sometimes back as far as mid-2020. According to Trauner, a bias is conceivable here, “that rather severe cases were recoded” and the mortality in the analysis might have been overestimated.
“These are limitations associated with a young diagnosis,” said the expert. However, collecting post-Covid data in Austria will mean that LongCovid will be better understood in the future.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
