Long Covid has been written about. There are troubling symptoms on social media that persist for weeks after an illness. Multiple theories have arisen from the research to find a cause.
What do we know about Covid and how to treat it? The leading physicians working with long Covid patients were contacted by Guardian Australia to better understand the latest evidence.
The National Institute of Health Research in the UK and the National Institute of Health in the US all have different definitions of long Covid.
Post- Covid or long Covid is defined by the WHO as occurring in people who still have symptoms three months after their initial Covid-19 infections. Many of the symptoms are similar to those of other diseases and conditions according to the National Institute of Health.
There is no diagnostic test for long Covid and this means other illnesses need to be ruled out first. A team of experts work together to make sure that something else isn't happening.
When people first come in, we try to have a recovery mindset, rather than assuming people have long Covid from the beginning.
There are pockets of Covid in the gut.
You won't necessarily be someone who is diagnosed with long Covid at the end of these assessments if we pitch our clinic as a post- Covid clinic.
She says that people are reassured when they hear that most patients improve over time.
People who are admitted to the hospital with Covid-19 can experience anxiety and poor sleep, which can be caused by the use of corticosteroids. Being on machines and in intensive care can cause fatigue and weakness in the muscles. She says that sometimes symptoms are due to the body being in hospital rather than long Covid.
The most common symptoms people present with at the Covid and post- Covid clinic are fatigue and lethargy, according to an associate professor.
There are many conditions that need to be excluded before a patient is given a label of long Covid.
If a different condition is causing the symptoms, it might be treated differently.
Being raised seems to protect against Covid. Estimates of those with Covid who will develop long Covid range from 5% to 30%, but applying this prevalence to the general population is difficult.
Patients in long Covid studies would have been exposed to earlier, more severe strains of the virus if they had not beenvaccinated. It is not possible to apply the prevalence of long Covid in this group to patients with Omicron.
Some Covid studies have a control group. The control group is made up of people who are similar to the people being studied.
The control group is important when looking at common long Covid symptoms such as fatigue, which is present in about 20% of the population. If you compare the long Covid group with a control group, you can see if a symptom is more common after Covid than you would expect.
Many long Covid studies use a wide range of symptoms, from fatigue to GI issues, and even brain fog. Depending on the way the study is designed, this larger size does not mean the study findings are stronger or that all of those participants have symptoms caused by long Covid.
Sometimes studies ask participants to self-report their symptoms and while these studies can be useful, they can also have strong limitations.
It's important to remember that correlation isn't a cause. Some long Covid study findings are not being put into perspective. Scary headlines are not backed up by data.
Some of the headlines will give high estimates of long Covid but not mention that this refers to a study of people admitted to hospital, including the intensive care unit. Extrapolating data from people who are sick enough to end up in the hospital is not right.
The Adapt study is looking at patients for long Covid and Prof Gail Matthews is one of the lead investigators.
Her team looked at blood samples from people with and without Covid. Some people with symptoms eight months after a Covid-19 infections had elevated levels of types of proteins that cells make in response to the presence of a virus.
In patients with long Covid, the proteins were still present despite the fact that the infections had been cleared. Further study is required to understand the cause of this.
It gives biological plausibility to the symptoms of Covid.
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The study involved 62 people. The authors of the study said the results need to be verified in other Covid groups.
The participants are going to be followed again at the two-year mark to see if they are getting better. People who have been in the hospital are not the only ones who have ongoing symptoms.
Even a small percentage of people with long Covid will lead to a large number of people affected by the disease. It can take months or years for most of these people to recover.
The National Covid-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce recently published "Frequently asked questions" about long- Covid and post- Covid.
There are two Covid clinics at Royal Melbourne hospital, one that assesses people and rules out alternative explanations, and the other an allied health rehabilitation program that focuses more on therapies, exercise physiology, diet, psychology and even treatments such as singing therapy to help people to use their voice and strengthen their
Most patients make a steady gradual recovery, although the time course for that recovery varies considerably between patients, despite the fact that post-covid symptoms can be frustrating. There is a person who says that. A reduced, graded exercise program can benefit people who have been sick.
There is a problem with treatment for Covid. Different people might have different causes. Immunology, inflammation, and lung abnormality are some of the theories about the triggering event.
Prof Steven Faux is the director of the rehabilitation unit at St.Vincent's Hospital.
There are some common symptoms, but there are others that are different.
Some people will present with fatigue. Some people can't return to work. People with mental illness are present. Some people with deconditioning need to be dealt with in a different way.
It all goes away once we fix the problem. That is not what it is.
There is a possibility of a link between blood clot and covid symptoms.
There is this sort of vacant space which is evidence-free which is being filled with people who are enthusiastic about particular cures and treatments.
He says that they are often shared on the social networking site.
Early on in the Pandemic, when little was known about how to care for patients, ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine were promoted as cures.
People have to accept a level of uncertainty and manage as best as they can within the limitations of the research. Those with Covid want to hear something different.
Many others with long Covid manage and improve with an individualized program that fits within their needs and with what they can do
Most people will get better, there is no reason not to expect that.
Some people with only a mild Covid-19 illness can be diagnosed with long Covid if they have certain comorbidities like diabetes.
The demographic and symptoms of those presenting with long Covid differ by country. He is seeing a lot of people with pre-existing mental health conditions that have been made worse by Covid-19.
A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association's 'Psychiatry' journal found that people with more severe disease are more likely to be at risk of long-covid.
Associate Prof Shidan Tosif is a paediatrician at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute. Based on patient numbers, long Covid appears to be less common in children than in adults. Tosif says it's important for parents to feel comfortable seeing a doctor with their child. He says that there is a tendency to seek out information online and try therapies that may not be evidence-based or accurate. I encourage those parents to see their doctor.
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