Experts warn virus that almost all of us have caught may dramatically raise risk of young dementia

Top scientists have warned that those who've had Covid may be at greater risk of developing dementia before they reach 70.

The virus, which has infected two thirds of people in the UK, could make sufferers up to five times more likely to get dementia if they've had long-lasting symptoms, according to US experts.

Dr Gabriel de Erausquin, a neurologist at University of Texas Health San Antonio, who is exploring the link, said studies show those over 57 who've suffered long covid 'have the profile of a person with very early Alzheimer's'.

'It doesn’t look in older adults that this is a reversible process,' he told the Wall Street Journal.

Dr Erausquin is also conducting a study on 4,000 patients who contracted Covid when they were over 60.

His early data has suggested up to a third of these individuals aged over 65, who have long-lasting symptoms, meet the criteria for mild cognitive impairment — a precursor for dementia.

This is a huge 'four-or-fivefold increase' in prevalence, compared to a group of patients the same age without long covid symptoms.

While mild cognitive impairment isn't always a precursor to full-blown dementia, about one six patients who develop it go on to be diagnosed with the condition within a year.

Dr Erausquin's results adds to a growing body of research that suggests patients exposed to the virus are at greater risk of developing Alzheimer’s.

A Government report on long covid published late last year found just over half of patients reported cognitive problems like difficulty concentrating.

Meanwhile, a study of nearly 1 million patients published in August last year found two thirds of over 65 year-olds hospitalised for the virus went on to suffer cognitive decline.

Long covid is a poorly understood condition that sees patients infected with the virus experience symptoms like fatigue, shortness of breath and memory problems months or even years after their original illness.

Experts are yet to uncover if the pathogen sparks changes that could lead to dementia, or if the virus instead accelerates existing problems with the brain.

Scientists also don't yet know if the increased risk of cognitive problems they have observed in patients gets worse over time.

Any diagnosis of dementia before the age of 65 is known as young-onset dementia.

While the risk of the memory robbing disorder broadly increases with age the number of cases among younger patients in Britain has risen 69 per cent in a decade.

Scientists are also exploring whether covid-induced mild cognitive impairment is curable.

Dr Igor Koralnik, chief of neuro-infectious diseases at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, said about half of the 70 long covid patients his team have treated showed improvements after treatment called cognitive rehabilitation.

This invovled making alterations that are designed to help patients compensate for their condition, such as using technology to set timers or reminders.

However, Dr Koralnik added a third of the patients in his recent study, published in the Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, didn’t show any significant difference in measures of memory after the treatment.

Concerningly, for some younger long covid patients, memory problems do appear to be getting worse with time.

Juan Lewis was a deputy commander of an air base squadron in Germany when he was hospitalised with Covid back in April 2020.

A year later he was diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment and says he is now 'extremely worried' about getting dementia.

'I very seldom go places by myself,' he said. 'My wife is often with me. I’m easily distracted. I constantly leave credit cards in restaurants.'

An estimated 2million people in the UK were reported to have long covid as of March 2023, the last official count held.

Of these, 1.3million had experienced symptoms for over a year .

In the US, surveys run by the Centers for Disease Control found about 17 per cent of Americans have reported long covid symptoms, though some studies have estimated the actual rate to be about 3.6 per cent.

Globally, about 409million people had the condition as of the end of 2023, according to estimates published in the journal Nature Medicine in August last year.

Experts say the odds of developing long covid appear to be linked to falling severely ill with the virus, with about 3 to 5 per cent of those hospitalised with the virus developing the condition.

Specialists recommend people who are eligible for Covid vaccines and boosters take up the offer.

Long covid is defined by the NHS as when patients experience symptoms like fatigue, shortness of breath, memory and concentration problems, heart palpitations, dizziness and pain for longer than 12 weeks after their original infection.

There is no known cure, with treatment instead focusing on alleviating the symptoms.

About 44million Britons, about 65 per cent of the population, had caught Covid at least once by February 2022 since the start of the pandemic according to estimates from the Office for National Statistics. This is broadly considered an underestimate as wide-spread testing for the virus wasn't available in the earliest stages of the pandemic.