More than 3,500 Americans died of long COVID-related illness in the first two and a half years of the pandemic, according to a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Wednesday. Figures from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics also show that while women are more likely to develop long COVID, men slightly make up a slightly higher percentage of long COVID deaths. Although the 3,500 number is just a fraction of the 1 million COVID deaths clocked in the U.S., experts say the finding underscores the threat that long COVID poses to patients. “A lot of people think of long COVID as associated with long-term illness,” said Farida Ahmad, a CDC health scientist and lead author of the study. “This shows it can be a cause of death.” Long COVID is typically associated with symptoms including cognitive issues, fatigue, and breathlessness. It’s thought that as many as 1 in 13 adults experience symptoms that last three months or more after initially being infected with the virus, the CDC says.