Transcript
If you have recovered from COVID but still have some symptoms, could that be Long COVID? How long do these symptoms last? Is there treatment available? Here to talk about Long COVID today is Dr Jamie Rylance.
VGS Welcome Jamie. Jamie, talk to us about Long COVID. How does it affect people?
JR Thanks, Vismita, pleasure to be here. So, Long COVID can happen to anybody after their acute illness. It can come on as a continuation of symptoms or new symptoms and it can last a long time. The problem is, the symptoms are very variable. Patients may have difficulty recognizing that they have it and healthcare workers, to be honest, can also struggle to identify it. But if you’re a typical Long COVID patient you might have fatigue, feeling tired all the time, brain fog, difficulty concentrating, difficulty sleeping, shortness of breath.
Those are the main symptoms but there are so many others. One of the problems is that those symptoms can also represent other medical illnesses. So it's really important to get the diagnosis right and healthcare workers and patients need to work together to do that.
So when scientists have looked for what are the underlying causes of Long COVID there’s many different abnormalities that have been seen. Things like very small blood clots or altered immune cell responses, abnormal triggering or responses within the nervous system, or changes in the usual bugs, the microbiome that we usually carry around with us. And that being so many different possibilities there’s no single one diagnostic test. That said, we need to get patients onto treatment. We focus on the things that are bothering them, the symptoms and making sure their function comes back to normal.
VGS Jamie, do people experience Long COVID differently? Are symptoms different and why?
JR Well, the obvious thing is no two people are the same and it can be very different. That said, we do know some things that might predict whether you’re more at risk of having Long COVID or for how long the symptoms might last for.
VGS Jamie, talk to us about vaccination.
JR So, vaccination does help. It protects you against severe COVID disease and it protects you against Long COVID. At the other end of the spectrum, people who’ve had particularly severe disease are more likely to have Long COVID, and the symptoms are likely to last longer. And that’s people who have been admitted to hospital or particularly to Intensive Care Unit. But we know that the health of people before COVID is really important as well. So long-standing or pre-existing health problems, respiratory disease, mental health problems but many others can increase the risk that you suffer long COVID. And therefore it’s really important to try and keep and maintain a healthy lifestyle as much as possible.
So we know that Long COVID is a global problem, it can occur to anyone, anywhere in the world. What we need is for primary healthcare professionals to be able to recognize, assess and treat patients with Long COVID. And the way people access their healthcare will vary around the world. Sometimes there may be specialty services for COVID, sometimes there may be specialist doctors. But very frequently, and particularly where resources are limited, there are not. And so it's really important that we empower primary healthcare providers to give patient-centered care close to home. And that’s what we’re doing at WHO, making guidance to help healthcare workers deliver high-quality care and the education materials to support them to do so.
VGS So Jamie, how long do the symptoms last, and even though we don’t have a pill, per se, how can we help people who are suffering from Long COVID?
JR Well, the first thing is that most people recover fully and that can take months and of course some people we know are badly affected for years. Although there isn’t a specific medical treatment, what we really need to do is access and treat patients for the problems that they have. Often that’s associated with rehabilitation, getting people back to functional status, to enjoy life and health.
There are specific medical treatments for some people and overall that goes a long way to helping increase the quality of life. So, I’m optimistic in the science delivering more treatments and that’s hundreds of clinical trials going on at present, and I’d encourage people to get involved where they feel able and where they’re offered. So there’s hope, I think, in terms of new treatments.
But apart from the medical treatment, I think the biggest obstacle that people with Long COVID feel at the moment is that their disease is not recognized. They’re told that their brain fog or other symptoms are not real and that’s demoralizing. So what they need is kindness and support through their treatment. And that comes from their family, their friends, their employers because it’s in everyone’s best interest that people with Long COVID don’t feel alone and feel that they’re supported throughout their recovery.
VGS Thank you, Jamie.
That was Science in 5 today until next time then, stay safe, stay healthy and stick with science.
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