As everyone continues to deal with COVID-19 on a global scale, one complication that took people by surprise was the emergence of a post-COVID-19 condition or long COVID. There are a few symptoms that many people have in common but doctors and researchers are still learning how things can differ from one group of people to the other. Recently, one specific symptom has been found to affect Blacks more significantly than other ethnicities.
What’s Long COVID?
Long COVID is a term that’s used to describe symptoms or illnesses that occur within three months of recovering from COVID-19. In some cases, the issues persist for a few months but some people deal with long COVID symptoms for over a year.
A few of the typical symptoms are shortness of breath, fatigue, and cognitive problems. Having COVID can also lead to chronic health issues such as kidney disease, type 2 diabetes, and problems with your heart.
While researchers have found that people with certain conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity are more likely to have long COVID symptoms, it doesn’t apply to everyone.
Even those who only had a mild bout with COVID-19 and had no pre-existing illnesses have developed long-term issues. There are also some signs that age and ethnicity can influence what happens after the initial illness.
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The Symptom African Americans Need To Know About
According to studies conducted in June, approximately two-thirds of those with long COVID complain about being unable to sleep. What’s worse is that the problem affected Blacks three times more than other ethnicities.
This insomnia was described as being moderate to severe and was found in people who didn’t complain about poor sleep before.
Though there’s still a lot of research to be done, health professionals are working on determining why that is.
One possibility is that the sleep disruption can be linked to existing issues that are more likely to plague Black people than others. For example, statistics show that Blacks are more prone to