AGH opens clinic for those with long-term effects from COVID-19.

Allegheny Health Network announced Wednesday it is opening one of the first clinics dedicated to treating COVID-19 “long-haulers.”

The self-described long-haulers are those people who became infected with COVID- 19 but whose symptoms have lingered for months or develop out of the blue months after they were first diagnosed with the coronavirus.

The AHN Post COVID-19 Recovery Clinic will be based out of the AHN Wexford Health + Wellness Pavilion Breathing Disorders Center in Pine, according to health system officials. Multiple specialists will work out of the new clinic.

“Across the country, physicians are witnessing an increasing number of patients who have recovered from COVID-19 yet continue to deal with a myriad of issues from pulmonary, heart and vascular problems to chronic fatigue, headaches, and post-traumatic stress disorder,” said Dr. Tariq Cheema, division director of pulmonary, critical care, sleep and allergy at AHN.

Studies have shown that about 1 in 3 people who had even mild cases of COVID-19 may still have symptoms after nine months.

Symptoms run the gamut from burning lungs, a rapid heartbeat, dizzy spells and hand tremors to hair loss, an occasional racing heartbeat, brain fog, insomnia, a nagging smell of something burning and intermittent ringing in the ears.

“We’ve seen former COVID-19 patients who’ve never smoked before with lung scans mirroring that of a lifelong smoker,” Dr. Cheema said. “We’re also noting increased cases of extreme fatigue, ongoing loss of smell/taste, heart inflammation and growing numbers of self-reported depression.”

Many have symptoms similar both to chronic disease syndrome and to a condition involving fatigue and thinking difficulties that can develop after treatment for Lyme disease, a bacterial infection spread by certain ticks.

There are a few working theories for what might be causing persistent symptoms. One is that the virus remains in the body at undetectable levels but still causes tissue or organ damage. Or perhaps it overstimulates the immune system, keeping it from returning to a normal state. A third theory: Symptoms linger or arise anew when the virus attacks blood vessels, causing minute, undetectable blood clots that can wreak havoc throughout the body.

Some scientists think each of these may occur in different people.

AHN’s new clinic will be open to anyone who has been diagnosed with COVID-19 and continues to experience symptoms of the virus, according to officials.

Scientists with the National Institutes of Health received $1 billion from Congress to study the long-haulers issue. They plan to follow at least 20,000 people who’ve had COVID-19, as scientists search for disease markers, treatments and cures.