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Abstract Background Lung injury is one of the most common and damaging lesions of COVID-19. Some of the manifestations may persist after the clinical recovery as part of a post-COVID syndrome. Aim To study the prevalence of persistent respiratory symptoms after COVID-19 infection and its associated factors. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted among healthcare workers at a Tunisian Hospital, who tested positive for SARS-COV2 during the period from 01/09/2020 to 28/02/2021. Results A total of 474 workers were included, with a mean age of 41.02 ±10.67 years. A female predominance was noted (79.3%). A medical history was reported in 37.9% of cases of which 16.3% had a respiratory history. The rate of respiratory manifestations of covid-19 was 38.4% and consisted of (35.6%) cough, (5.8%) dyspnea, and (5.8%) chest pain. At 3-month follow-up, respiratory symptoms of the post-covid syndrome were dominated by shortness of breath on effort (23.8%), chest pain (8.4%), and cough (7.4%). Chest CT scans were performed in 33 patients and were normal in 33.3% of cases. The evaluation duration of dyspnea, chest pain and cough in the post-COVID phase were more prolonged in patients who were not hospitalized during the acute phase of the infection compared to those who were hospitalized with a statistically significant difference for dyspnea (p dyspnea=0.024) and for chest pain (p chest pain=0.023). Discussion and Conclusion The high rate of respiratory manifestations of post covid syndrome underlines the importance of further work in order to prevent its possible complications.
Kacem et al. (Mon,) studied this question.