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No one knows how many are ill in the long term with covid-19. According to the latest Novus survey in August, there may be around 150,000 people who believe they have been ill for a long time. General practitioner Sofia Hellman from the Vaxholm Health Center has seen about 10 patients over the summer. She says primary care is now pulling a heavy load.
– Yes, I think we will see more, and I think it is primary care that will take care of them, he says.
Been seriously ill
Magnus Isacsson, Tensta’s general practitioner and president of the Swedish Society of General Medicine, shares the same picture.
– Now we see that there will be a plethora of those patients. But we really don’t know how to relate to them, he says.
Most have been seriously ill but have not been hospitalized. Many symptoms are common. They still have trouble breathing, their heart is racing, there is a fever and lack of energy, and an increased risk of blood clots. Many people report neurological symptoms such as loss of taste and smell, numbness, tingling, dizziness, headaches, and difficulty concentrating.
“Phenomena that we do not know”
But the knowledge gaps are large. This fall, the National Board of Health and Welfare and the Swedish Agency for Medical and Social Evaluation will investigate which symptoms are typical of a long-term illness and which treatment is the best.
– The difficulty here is that it is a completely new phenomenon that we do not know about and cannot give you a forecast. Many times I couldn’t do much with the symptoms, but you can believe them and I’ve been able to be there, says Sofia Hellman.
