Health chiefs preparing advice to manage virus

Health officials are developing fresh guidance to help people suffering from long covid recognise and manage the condition.

About one in 20 people experience symptoms including fatigue, breathlessness, muscle pain and loss of taste and smell for 12 weeks or more after contracting the virus, a recent study found.

This figure rises to one in 10 people under the age of 50, according to research by King's College London.

Other symptoms can include high temperature and psychiatric problems, and different features of the condition may emerge and overlap over time as the illness progresses.

Now the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has announced it is now looking at which long covid symptoms should prompt a patient being referred to specialist services.

Paul Chrisp, director of the Centre for Guidelines at Nice, said: "This is a new condition and there is still a lot we don't know about it.

"Our aim is that the postcovid syndrome guideline will begin by setting bestpractice standards of care based on the curr en tevidence.

"But, as our understanding of the condition grows, be adaptable and responsive to new evidence as it emerges."

Professor Martin Marshall, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said: "Before we can effectively diagnose, treat and manage a condition, we need to know what we're dealing with.

"The prolonged health effects that some patients experience after contracting COVID-19 can have a terrible impact on their lives.

"And as GPs we want to do what we can to help them."