Scots research reveals Long Covid may inflict enduring lung damage as victims call for help to understand condition and ease their suffering
Patients enduring so- called Long Covid are suffer ing enduring damage to their lungs, according to Scots researchers.
An estimated one in 50 people who have contracted the virus struggle with long- term problems as a range of different and debilitating symptoms, including exhaustion and breathlessness, abate and recur.
Colin Berry, professor of cardiology and imaging at Glasgow University, is leading the CISCO-19 study into the affects of Covid. He believes scans of patients who have recovered after being admitted to hospital are showing signs of longterm damage.
Professor Berry has recruited 160 survivors and 20 people who have not had Covid as a control group, and said: “In our Covid study, women and men are equally repr e s e n t e d and the average age for both is around 55 years.
“Hea l th and care workers, who have a higher risk of Covid, and those in public-facing professions including bus and taxi drivers, are well represented in our study.
“Our initial impression is that most patients do not have significant heart damage, although this has happened to some patients, and our research is ongoing.
“We see a greater incidence of damage to the lungs because Covid is mainly a respiratory infection.”
One of those taking part in the CISCO- 19 study is retired taxi driver Dominic Hicks, 67, who became so ill from Covid in April he feared he would die.
On leaving the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, he was so tired he could not climb the few steps to get into his house.
Today, six months later, stairs are still a struggle and he fears this will be a legacy of the virus.
“My GP has told me that my lungs have been scarred by Covid and that I will have to live with this,” he said. “They will never be the same but I am so glad to have survived because at one point in hospital I collapsed on the room floor and can remember doctors and nurses struggling to get me back into bed.
“I remember them putting an oxygen mask on my face and working hard to get this into my lungs. They warned me my next step was ICU but I managed to recover enough to stay isolated in my hospital room.
“I spent 16 days in hospital and then these months since April, trying to get back to something resembling my previous fitness.”
Last week Dominic spent more than an hour in a body scanner while his vital organs were examined in detail for the CISCO-19 study.
“You have to spend quite a while in a huge diagnostic tube obeying instructions,” he said, “but it was my way of saying thanks to medical research of previous years that saved me in April. They say I will get the results on damage done by Covid sometime soon. I can walk, but stairs are still difficult, and I live in an upstairs house.”
Part of his recovery plan was a fundraising walk for a children’s charity – the John O’byrne Foundation, which helps sick children.
A campaign group that supports Long Covid sufferers welcomed professor B e r r y ’s research, but warned that patients who were not admitted to hospital
were still waiting for care for their post-viral illnesses months later.
Lesley Mcniven, of the Long Covid Support Group, who featured in a Sunday Post investigation into Long Covid in August, says victims have been plagued for months with symptoms that include exhaustion, breathlessness, palpitations, brain fog and other chronic illnesses.
She said: “One member was promised a heart scan in April and is s t i l l wa i t i n g . We a re
disappointed by the lack of real care and research for those who were not seriously ill with the virus but have suffered for months since.
“It is extremely unhelpful to be told that Long Covid will pass, especially after the Scottish Government has acknowledge that it is a considerable problem and offered a framework of recovery. We need to know when this will begin because Long Covid patients are desperate to take part in research and treatment.”
Long Covid patient Maggie Cornock, 63, from Montrose, is still waiting for a chest scan after suffering from breathlessness and exhaustion for seven months.
She said: “We ha v e been given online support and guidance on physiotherapy and appreciate the challenges Covid presents to treating patients, but there is a c o n s i d e ra b l e n u m b e r of people like us n ow w a i t i n g for scans and the research desperately needed to drive forward long-haul treatment.”
The Scottish Government said: “We are already taking action to support those experiencing the longer physical and mental health impacts of Covid and recognise that rehabilitation, clinical input and research are all critical to understanding and supporting recovery.
“That is why, on October 5, the Chief Scientist Office launched a further call for Scottish-led research into this important issue. This is in addition to the £ 5m we recently awarded to 15 Scottish research institutions to better understand the effects of infection and inform treatment and management of the virus.”
My lungs will never be the same again