New and Noteworthy from The New York Times, original article by Knvul Sheikh and Pam Belluck
The range of possible symptoms, as well as their severity and length, is one of the many perplexing elements of the coronavirus. Some people get a little sickness and recover swiftly with no long-term consequences. However, studies show that 10 to 30% of people experience chronic or new illness concerns months after their coronavirus infections, a symptom cluster known as long Covid. People with mild to moderate sickness, as well as those with no underlying medical conditions, might develop debilitating long-term symptoms such as fatigue, shortness of breath, erratic heart rate, headaches, dizziness, depression, and memory and concentration problems.
Long Covid, also known as PASC, or post-acute sequelae of Covid-19, has a vague definition. While the World Health Organization estimates long Covid begins three months after the initial bout of disease or positive test result, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that it can start one month after the initial bout of illness or positive test result.
According to Dr. Al-Aly, who has conducted numerous studies on long-term post-Covid issues, certain researchers and health care professionals use different time frames, making it more difficult to evaluate and quantify the disease.
When patients see their doctors with persistent symptoms, testing like electrocardiograms, chest X-rays, CT scans, and blood work don't necessarily reveal physiological issues, according to Dr. Al-Aly. Researchers are attempting to identify biomarkers, or biological characteristics, that are linked to persistent Covid symptoms. These could include symptoms of inflammation or immune system molecules that can be evaluated through blood testing, for example.
For the time being, doctors must rely on their patients' reports of symptoms to rule out other possibilities. Multidisciplinary teams of professionals review patients in some post-Covid clinics to determine the best therapy choices.
Long Covid's actual drive is unknown, although research has begun to provide some insights. According to Dr. Michael Peluso, an infectious disease physician at the University of California, San Francisco, an immune response that goes into overdrive when you first get sick may lead to inflammation and damage throughout the body, eventually culminating in long Covid symptoms.
“We know that during acute Covid-19, some people have a really revved-up immune response and some people have a reduced immune response, and that response can determine the trajectory of how well somebody does,” he said.
Another explanation, experts say, could be that your immune system never fully shuts down after the initial infection.
According to research, some people are at a higher risk of developing long-term illnesses. Researchers discovered four characteristics that might be recognized early in a person's coronavirus infection that appeared to connect with an elevated likelihood of having persistent symptoms two to three months later in a study of 209 patients published in January.
Early in the infection, the level of coronavirus RNA in the blood, which is a measure of viral load, was one determinant. Another factor was the existence of autoantibodies, which are antibodies that wrongly attack body tissues, like in lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. The reactivation of the Epstein-Barr virus, which can cause mononucleosis and infects most people when they are young, but then goes dormant, was a third component.
The fourth factor was having Type 2 diabetes, while experts say that diabetes could be just one of several medical conditions that increases the chance of long Covid in larger studies.
Other pre-existing medical issues that may put patients at risk for long Covid have also been discovered in studies from post-Covid clinics. According to a report on the first 100 patients treated for neurological and cognitive symptoms at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago's post-Covid clinic, 42 percent had previously experienced depression or anxiety, though doctors speculated that such patients may simply be more comfortable seeking neurological treatment. Autoimmune illnesses and headaches were among the other pre-existing ailments.
According to Dr. Peluso, studies show that the danger of acquiring long Covid rises around middle age. The participants in the Northwestern study were on average 43 years old. People between the ages of 36 and 64 made up roughly two-thirds of the long Covid patients, according to an analysis of 78,252 private health insurance claims across the United States. (However, because the study did not cover most Medicare users, it only included a small number of elderly patients.)
Women may be disproportionately impacted, with 60 percent of patients being female in some studies. Long-term illnesses like ME/CFS (myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome), which shares numerous symptoms with long Covid, have shown a similar tendency.
Because the pandemic has had such a large impact on Black and Latino communities in the United States, and because those groups have less access to medical treatment, they may have a higher proportion of long Covid cases, according to Dr. Peluso.
If you are concerned about any lingering symptoms after a confirmed or suspected coronavirus infection, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Checking in with your primary care provider is a good first step. More doctors are becoming aware of long Covid symptoms and can recommend tests that might at least rule out other causes of your symptoms.
“Even though we say that long Covid is when symptoms last for a month or three months after infection, you don’t have to wait that long to get help,” Dr. Al-Aly said. “People should really honor their symptoms.”
If you or a loved one has been seriously injured due to someone else's careless, reckless or negligent actions, do not hesitate to reach out to the dedicated legal professionals at Trolman Glaser Corley & Lichtman.
NYT Article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/21/well/long-covid-symptoms-treatment.html