WVXU: A mounting number of COVID patients continue to report lingering aftereffects
UC expert says long-haul COVID-19 patients can experience symptoms for as long as 18 months
More and more people who contract COVID-19 are experiencing symptoms for an extended period of time. In a story on this produced by WVXU, Richard Becker, MD, professor and director, UC Heart, Lung and Vascular Institute and UC Division of Cardiovascular Health and Disease, who runs a long COVID clinic at UC Medical Center, said some patients are seeing symptoms last as long as a year and a half.
Richard Becker, MD, professor and director, UC Heart, Lung and Vascular Institute and UC Division of Cardiovascular Health and Disease/Photo/Colleen Kelley/UC Creative + Brand
"We have patients who have been hospitalized and then either their recovery is very long or they seem to have a change in symptoms that represent what we call post-COVID conditions," Becker said. "I would say of the several hundred people that we’ve seen in our clinic, a majority of them have had mild or moderate intensity symptoms, but then they have varied symptoms, up to 100 different kinds of symptoms that can last for three, six, nine, 12, 18 months."
Becker said one ongoing unknown is whether or not these patients are contagious.
"We don't know the answer to that," Becker said. "We believe that people are not contagious, but there is certainly a great deal of thought being put into having reservoirs of virus within the body that continue to generate symptoms through triggering of the immune response.
Lead photo/Colleen Kelley/UC Creative + Brand
Next Lives Here
The University of Cincinnati is classified as a Research 1 institution by the Carnegie Commission and is ranked in the National Science Foundation's Top-35 public research universities. UC's medical, graduate and undergraduate students and faculty investigate problems and innovate solutions with real-world impact. Next Lives Here.
Related Stories
German TV highlights UC expert's ancient Maya discoveries
March 2, 2026
The German television show 'Unsolved Case' talks to a University of Cincinnati expert about ballcourts used by the ancient Maya for a program examining how people used spheres as both tools and toys.
UC studies supplement, therapy alternatives to treat depression
March 2, 2026
Media outlets including Cleveland.com and Cleveland's WKYC News highlighted a new University of Cincinnati clinical trial funded by an approximately $3.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health to test two new nonpharmacological treatments for teens and young adults with depression.
'Paradigm-shifting' study confirms effectiveness of long-acting HIV treatment
February 26, 2026
The results of a clinical trial involving the University of Cincinnati, recently published in The New England Journal of Medicine, show people failing HIV treatments with oral medications were able to be treated successfully using injections.