recovery as a result of persistent inflammation according to an april 3 paper by doctors at the cedarssinai medical center in los angeles they based their analysis on patient data from italy and chinasars evidencefor clues on how covid19 may leave its mark doctors and researchers are looking to the experience of sars some survivors suffered longterm effects years after they first succumbed to the disease which is part of the same family as the new coronavirusresearchers in china analyzed 25 sars patients 12 years after they contracted the virus contrasting their results with a control group who were not infected with sars the study found that more than half of the recovered patients suffered another lung infection since their bout with sars and also had higher cholesterol levels additionally half the patients had at least five colds in the previous year a characteristic no one in the control group shared said the 2017 paper published online in scientific reportsthese data demonstrated that the recovered sars patients had a poor quality of life 12 years following recovery and were susceptible to inflammation tumors and glucose and lipid metabolic disorders researchers wrotedoctors like tsang at hong kongs princess margaret hospital said looking at former sars patients is potentially instructive among survivors of the sars outbreak of 2003 chronic fatigue and impaired lung function have been found in followup studies after two to four yearsthis is so new that i dont think anyone is able to tell what is the percentage of patients who will recover what is the percentage of patients who will not recover and have longterm sequela said michelle biehl a critical care pulmonary doctor at the cleveland clinic in ohio using the medical term for chronic conditions after a diseasesocietal implicationstracking and figuring out how covid19 affects the body even after recovery could inform governments budgeting for social safety nets doctors that see patients long term and businesses as they set policies such as sick and disability leave these issues could be even more crucial as public health officials say theres a possibility the virus may become a seasonal afflictioneconomies and companies looking to get people back to work will need to understand how and if covid19 affects human health in the long run and its scopethere is such a wide range in the way the illness affects people the various stakeholders need solid data to help them understand the breadth and duration of long term effects said jessica justman a professor of medicine in epidemiology at columbia universitythere is some hope early intervention could play a role in longerterm outcomes of coronavirus patients said ivan hung a professor of medicine at the university of hong kong hung said in april that 90 of about 200 discharged patients he oversaw at a clinic at one of the citys hospitals appear to be making a full recovery a month outhe attributed the success to hong kongs early diagnosis and early treatment of patients which leaves the virus with