“Repeated Covid-19 outbreaks in nursing homes have had a stark and lasting impact on vulnerable older residents, a new study reports,” Carole Tanzer Miller writes at HealthDay. “Long Covid has left many residents of these facilities relying more and more on staff to help them months later with basic, everyday activities such as bathing and using the toilet. Many also experience a drop-off in their brain function, according to the study by researchers from Michigan Medicine, the University of Michigan’s academic medical center. ‘Nursing home residents who had Covid-19 experienced new decline in their function and needed substantially more help with daily activities after their acute infection period, lasting for months,’ said study co-author Dr. Lona Mody, interim chief of geriatrics and palliative medicine at Michigan’s medical school and a staff physician at VA Ann Arbor Health Care System. ‘This places an even greater burden on nursing home staff, who are already stretched thin.’ … Covid survivors had continuing effects for about nine months, on average. And 30% of those with a confirmed case of Covid died during the follow up, more than double the percentage of deaths in the comparison group.” Carole Tanzer Miller, “Long Covid now common in U.S. nursing homes,” HealthDay.
