WHO: Time to team up, tackle ‘Long COVID’
GENEVA (AFP) – It is time to start solving the mystery of “Long COVID,” an aspect of the pandemic blighting millions of lives, according to the World Health Organization (WHO)’s leader on post-COVID conditions.
Little is known about why some people, after coming through the acute phase of COVID-19, struggle to recover and suffer ongoing symptoms, including tiredness, brain fog, cardiac and neurological disorders.
At this stage of the pandemic, the world is fixated on vaccine rollout and new, more contagious variants of the coronavirus.
“Long COVID,” however, deserves similar urgent attention, according to Janet Diaz, the clinical care lead in the WHO’s emergencies program, ahead of a push for a globally unified approach to the problem.
“We still don’t fully understand what Long COVID is,” Diaz told AFP in an interview outside the WHO’s headquarters in Geneva. “There’s quite a bit to learn, but I am confident that the scientific community is really rallying around.”
Tellingly, “Long COVID” does not yet have a proper name.
The WHO currently calls it “postCOVID condition,” while other terms in circulation include “postacute COVID syndrome” and “COVID Long-haulers.”
The WHO is hosting a first global seminar on “Long COVID” on Feb. 9. It will bring scientists, experts and clinicians together to define the condition, give it a formal name and harmonize study methods.
“It’s a condition that needs further description, further understanding of how many are affected and further understanding of what is causing it, so we can better prevent, manage and treat it,” said Diaz, 48, a US respiratory physician and intensive care doctor.
She said British and other studies suggested that potentially one in 10 cases may have prolonged symptoms one month after infection, but there was no picture yet of how long those conditions might persist.
The elderly and those with underlying conditions are most at risk of serious disease from COVID-19.
The profile of “Long COVID” patients, however, does not match. It affects people with varying degrees of severity of the disease, and “seems to potentially also include younger people,” including children, Diaz said.
While the pandemic response priority remains preventing people from catching the virus and falling ill, treating coronavirus cases “must also now include care after the acute illness ... until you get back to full health,” she added.
Fatigue seemed to be the most common symptom, with others including post-exertional malaise, cognitive dysfunction or brain fog, shortness of breath, heart palpitations and neurological problems, according to Diaz.
“How these are all related – that’s what we don’t understand. Why would one person get this, and the other person get that?” Diaz said, adding that researchers needed to crack the underlying mechanisms of the disease that were causing these persistent symptoms.