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Getting sick with Covid-19, even mildly, can cause problems for months. The syndrome called “Post Covid” or “Long Covid” is still underestimated in early evening discussions, but it now affects many people, it is believed. up to 10 percent of those who have been infected of the coronavirus. They are officially cured and swab negative subjects, but they have persistent symptoms and complaints that have lasted more than three months, mainly tiredness, weakness, shortness of breath, erythema, memory loss, anxiety, and muscle aches, problems that make it impossible for them to be as good as before.
The French study
The latest scientific study on this “syndrome” comes from French researchers from University Hospital of Tours which followed 150 noncritical patients from March to June. Two-thirds reported symptoms up to 60 days after getting sick, and more than a third still felt sick or even worse than when the infection started. The research, published on Monday, October 5 in the journal Clinical microbiology and infection, focused on patients who had had mild or moderate disease, precisely because other studies on this topic at the international level up to now had monitored people who returned from hospitalization (for moderate or severe disease) or in intensive care. The symptoms described were mainly: loss of smell and taste, shortness of breath and fatigue and were more likely in patients between the ages of 40 and 60 and in those who needed hospitalization.
In July, a study by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed that 35% of Covid-19 patients had not returned to their usual state of health two to three weeks later. of the negative swab that had determined his recovery. The most affected were people with chronic diseases, but nearly 1 in 5 young adults between the ages of 18 and 34 (without pre-existing medical conditions) reported that they had not returned to normal health (14 to 21 days after the test).
Facebook Group in Italy
What percentage of former sufferers are affected by long-term symptoms in the world? We do not know for sure but several investigations have suggested that they could represent around 10% of the total number of infected. Even if it were just a fraction, with 36 million positives in the world, the cost to health systems and people’s lives (including work) is enormous. the Messenger Service had addressed the issue with an article published in August: in Italy Morena Colombi founded a self-help group on Facebook called “We who have defeated Covid” and collects the stories of those who are officially cured, but are bad for months. «The accessions arrived and in a short time I realized that all of us, some more or less, have the same ailments. Many times we are branded depressed or hypochondriac. Our problems, however, are real, but nobody seems to want to give us credit, “Morena had said. The objective of the group is also that a “Post Covid Syndrome” is recognized, as is being done in other countries, to have the reimbursement of health expenses and the centers to contact.
Specialized centers
In New York, for example, a post-Covid care center has been opened Mount Sinai: Demand has increased to such an extent that the Center is hiring more staff to process requested appointments. Since it opened (four months ago at the Union Square location), the center has seen about 550 patients. One is also being created in Great Britain “Long Covid” network of clinics where patients will receive a physical evaluation to identify any chronic health problems and a cognitive evaluation for any memory, attention and concentration problems. There will also be a psychological profile. The National Institute for Health Research is overseeing a study that includes 10,000 Long Covid patients.
In Italy monitoring by hospitals
In Italy they are hospitals
in some cases, to take care of calling patients a few weeks after discharge. However, in general, the follow-up refers to people who in the previous wave were moderate to severe cases, but, as mentioned, the sequelae can affect any type of infection. “We remember the people discharged from the wards about two months after the onset of symptoms – explained Francesco Landi, head of physical medicine and rehabilitation and head of the post-Covid day hospital and author of one of the first studies in the world about the Post Covid published by the Jama in early July by the Foundation team Agostino Gemelli IRCCS University Polyclinic in Rome -. When going to investigate with various specialists and examinations, we realized that these subjects, even two months after the onset of the disease, continued to present symptoms, in particular fatigue, shortness of breath, joint or chest pain, cough, headache . . What we can say is that we found no organ damage and that these disorders will probably disappear. We are optimistic.
Also in the Papa Giovanni XXIII hospital in Bergamo there is a post Covid clinic: “Our follow-up involved 800 patients out of 2200 discharged (in august, ed) – observed Fabiano Di Marco, director of pulmonology at the hospital -: the most frequent symptoms are undoubtedly the lack of strength and breathing. However, the consequences are less serious than we expected. The disease does not progress and improves over time. There are almost always scars on the lungs, but we have seen that they do not affect their function. The scars of the soul, on the other hand, are more marked.
Recent memory is lost
Many complain of short-term memory loss: they cannot concentrate, they forget the details of the day it just happened and performance at work is no longer the same. “Sometimes viral infections that last a long time lead to a decrease in the performance of the central nervous system. This explains the loss of attention that generates, as a first effect, a constant decrease in the ability to memorize many events of daily life – he explained to the Messenger Service Giancarlo Cerveri, known as the “Codogno psychiatrist”, director of the Department of Mental Health of the Lodi Social Health Company -. Since there are no systematic studies on post-Covid, we can only rely on other viral forms from which we can say that, in a few months, residual symptoms regress spontaneously ”.
It also happened with Ebola, SARS and MERS.
A characteristic (post-infection symptoms) that therefore binds other viral formsCraig Spencer, Director of Global Health in Emergency Medicine at the New York-Presbyterian / Columbia University Medical Center, told the Washington Post in September that he had similar problems after falling ill with Ebola: “In 2014, I fell ill with Ebola in Guinea. I spent 19 days in the hospital and finally survived, but for months I have had joint and muscle pain. Walking hurts. Hair fell out in clumps. Then something improved, but not everything. Almost six years after being “cured,” I still have a hard time concentrating. My ability to remember is drastically reduced. I forgot names and details of people I knew very, very well. He himself writes that similar disorders, especially persistent fatigue, “brain fog”, feeling better on some days and worse on others, as well as various heart, respiratory and neurological problems, are long-term consequences. It is also seen after the coronavirus cousins: severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). In a study of SARS survivors, 24% had significantly reduced exercise capacity and health status compared to the general population 12 months after disease onset. Another study showed that two years after the onset of SARS, more than 50% of the survivors had impaired lung function tests and “their exercise capacity and health status were significantly lower than those of the general population.” . “Although there is still much to discover about Long Covid – Spencer concludes – we know that it is real, that the price is enormous, that facing it is overwhelming.”
October 9, 2020 (change October 9, 2020 | 12:45 pm)
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