Long COVID-19 and used cooking oil consumption in India: The potential for concurrent and cascading scourges – Correspondence

Long COVID-19 (also termed post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 or long COVID) is a multi-organ disease with high global prevalence and causes serious repercussions, including suicide [1,2]. The clinical spectrum of long COVID is associated with more than 200 symptoms and multiple organ dysfunctions, ranging from lung which cardiovascular disorders to nervous and gastrointestinal disorders [3]. In the long-term, the effects of long COVID might be devasting, especially in the low- and middle-income regions due to their lower healthcare capacity. In India, about 27.9 million people were affected due to long COVID in 2021 which is approximately 2.3-fold more than in 2020 [4]. A study on the Indian population found that 60.8% of inpatients who have received treatment for COVID-19 presented with long COVID symptoms six weeks after their hospital discharge [5].