People with long Covid suffer physical alterations to their brain months after clearing the initial infection, a study has shown.

MRIs of patients still suffering with symptoms six months later show clusters in parts of the brain linked to fatigue, headaches and cognition.

The Indian researchers behind the study say it is the first to show that Covid causes physical changes to the brain.

Other studies have found that the virus can also cause changes in other organs such as the heart and lungs.

Long Covid is not a specific condition with a set diagnosis, but instead an amalgamation of different symptoms with tenuous links to one-another that have been placed in the same category.  

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that one in five adults that are infected with Covid will suffer long Covid to varying degrees. 

There is no proven treatment or cure, but experts are exploring whether an alcoholism drug has benefit after showing promise in small studies.

Researchers from the the Indian Institute of Technology, in Dehli, gathered data from 46 patents who had Covid in the last six months and 30 people that had never been infected with the virus.

They found that most of the people who had recovered from Covid had changes in the circulation of tiny blood vessels in the frontal lobe and brain stem areas.

These regions are involved in higher order cognitive skills such as language expression and voluntary movements.