People who have had COVID-19 have a 36% overall higher risk of developing gastrointestinal (GI) problems in the year after infection than people who have not had the illness, a large new study indicates.
The researchers estimate that, so far, SARS-CoV-2 infections have contributed to more than 6 million new cases of GI disorders in the United States and 42 million new cases worldwide.
The diagnoses more common among patients who’ve had COVID ranged from stomach upset to acute pancreatitis, say the researchers, led by Evan Xu, a data analyst at the Clinical Epidemiology Center, Research and Development Service, the VA St. Louis Health Care System in Missouri.