Understanding the COVID-19 pandemic in England: context, acute symptomatology, and post-acute complications of COVID-19
File(s)
Author(s)
Whitaker, Matthew
Type
Thesis
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has represented an unprecedented global health challenge. The Imperial REACT-1 and REACT-2 programmes formed a part of the research response in England, analysing community prevalence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and antibodies through a series of large cross-sectional samples.
The introductory chapter of this thesis presents a detailed overview of the epidemiological aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic, summarising key research papers and milestones as well as describing the public health response and the development of treatments. The literature on the symptomatology of COVID-19, and of post-COVID syndrome, is reviewed in depth, and the REACT-1 and REACT-2 studies are introduced. Chapter two presents an algorithmic interrogation of the full corpus of COVID-19 literature published between 2020 and 2022, with description of research trends and analysis of different metrics of impact contextualised within all non-COVID-19 literature that has been published since 2019.
Chapters three and four use data from the REACT-1 and REACT-2 programmes to investigate (i) the symptomatology of COVID-19 in the acute phase of this disease and how this has changed over time with different variants and varying levels of population immunity, and (ii) the characteristics, risk factors and sub-types of post-COVID syndrome, where symptoms persist beyond 12 weeks after initial infection.
The thesis concludes with general remarks contextualising the findings and discussing potential and actual extensions of the research.
The introductory chapter of this thesis presents a detailed overview of the epidemiological aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic, summarising key research papers and milestones as well as describing the public health response and the development of treatments. The literature on the symptomatology of COVID-19, and of post-COVID syndrome, is reviewed in depth, and the REACT-1 and REACT-2 studies are introduced. Chapter two presents an algorithmic interrogation of the full corpus of COVID-19 literature published between 2020 and 2022, with description of research trends and analysis of different metrics of impact contextualised within all non-COVID-19 literature that has been published since 2019.
Chapters three and four use data from the REACT-1 and REACT-2 programmes to investigate (i) the symptomatology of COVID-19 in the acute phase of this disease and how this has changed over time with different variants and varying levels of population immunity, and (ii) the characteristics, risk factors and sub-types of post-COVID syndrome, where symptoms persist beyond 12 weeks after initial infection.
The thesis concludes with general remarks contextualising the findings and discussing potential and actual extensions of the research.
Version
Open Access
Date Issued
2023-05
Date Awarded
2023-09
Copyright Statement
Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial Licence
License URL
Advisor
Chadeau, Marc
Elliott, Paul
Ward, Helen
Publisher Department
School of Public Health
Publisher Institution
Imperial College London
Qualification Level
Doctoral
Qualification Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)