PATIENTS DESCRIBE TERRIBLE TOLL ON THEIR PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH AS COVID SYMPTOMS KEEP ON COMING
Long-haul patients struggling for months
The long-lasting and life-changing legacy of Covid-19 is today laid bare as Scots victims describe how the virus has inflicted months of ill-health, exhaustion and mental anguish.
A series of interviews with Scots, some who have almost died after contracting coronavirus, detail the impact on their lives as experts call for urgent and systematic support for the thousands of patients facing a long, arduous recovery.
Most sufferers recover after about two weeks but around one in 10 people experiences prolonged illnesses. Some have remained ill for three or four months since catching Covid as a range of debilitating symptoms come and go.
Now doctors and patients are calling for more research into so-called “Long Covid” and want better help with rehabilitation from health services.
Many patients report having their concerns about ongoing health problems dismissed by their GP, while others have struggled to access appropriate rehab.
Researchers are trying to understand why some patients suffer from this slow, drawn-out illness while others fall seriously ill very quickly, suffering extreme breathing problems and need to be treated in a hospital intensive care unit. Some patients whose initial Covid-19 symptoms were relatively mild still suffer debilitating and lengthy after-effects.
Evidence of the sheer scale of Long Covid has come from the UK Covid Symptom Study, where people enter their ongoing symptoms in a smartphone app. The study is run by King’s College, London, and has 200,000 Scots signed up to report on their symptoms.
The app is run by professor
Tim Spector, head of genetic epidemiology at the hospital, who said: “Many of these patients were not ill enough to be treated in
hospital but are still experiencing post-Covid symptoms months after. Many improve after 90 days but one in 200 still have problems. That’s a lot of people affected.
“They are reporting double-vision, fatigue, shortness of breath and depression. We do not know why, but it could be that some people cannot get rid of the virus, that their immune system is not handling it well. Some people are still testing positive weeks later but are unable to pass on the virus to others. They are not infectious but their symptoms are persisting months later.”
Frontline medical staff report patients who were thought to have recovered from Covid-19 are turning up at hospital suffering from blood clots on their lungs.
Consultant Dr Dave Chung of Crosshouse Hospital in Kilmarnock, who is head of the Royal College for Emergency Medicine in Scotland, said: “I have treated at least two patients with blood clots in the lungs after they recovered from Covid. We know how to treat blood clots but those caused by Covid are new.
“The medical manual for treating the many post-Covid illnesses is being written as we go along. We now consider the impact of the virus when patients present as emergencies. Any serious breathlessness needs emergency treatment.”
Enduring breathlessness is a symptom reported by many Long Covid patients and professor Colin Berry of Glasgow University is leading a study on patients who are breathless and exercise-intolerant after C-19. The investigators will probe which patients are at risk of heart injury as a result of the virus and why only some patients suffer heart problems from the infection.
The study will also assess lungs and kidneys. Patients who have received any level of Covid hospital care will be studied.
Professor Berry said: “Some patients have been readmitted to hospital with chest pain, blood clots or other serious events after leaving hospital on recovering from Covid. Studies in Germany and London show changes in the hearts and lungs of patients who have had Covid.
“We also know that men have had more serious Covid infections and that women are more likely to be protected by oestrogen.”
Former GP and MSP Dr Richard Simpson is calling for research into the neurological effects of long Covid and a proper post-Covid assessments for people who have had the virus.
Dr Simpson, professor of health sciences and sport at Stirling University, said: “Careful follow-up is needed and a proper programme of post-Covid assessment vital. The consequences are not just neurological but cardiovascular and renal (kidney). We need to discover what part this might play in raising the risk of dementia and, if this is so, consider