Inside the Scientist’s Battle Against the Long Covid

As Covid-19 hospitalizations and associated deaths stabilize throughout the UK, expert attention is focused on one of the most damaging heritage sites in the pandemic.

Nearly one million people in the UK (including an estimated 34,000 children) are currently suffering from the effects of long Covid. National Bureau of Statistics (ONS). About 40% say they have been debilitated since they were first infected with the coronavirus at least a year ago.

Defined as a symptomatology of Covid that lasts more than 12 weeks, the syndrome “is becoming the next major threat to medical services and the economy.” Daily mail.. And “currently there is no cure”.

“I couldn’t work”

Longcovid researcher Professor Brendan Delaney has been fighting the disease personally since he was infected with Covid last March.

Delaney, chair of medical informatics at Imperial College London (ICL), told the Daily Mail that she suffered from “severe malaise” as well as “dyspnea, muscle aches, brain fog, and recurrent fever.” Even after returning to a part-time job after three months of reconstruction, “I Couldn’t work at my normal level, “He said,” I didn’t see the connection between things. “

Other long Covid patients describe similar symptoms.A 19-year-old college student identified only as Niam said Parents Even after recovering from the initial infection, I felt like I was hitting a train or running a marathon.

“I didn’t have the energy to move my arms,” ​​she said. “When I get up, I feel like I’m going to fall down slowly. I ask myself, why can’t I be like everyone else? Why did this happen to me?”

According to the latest ONS survey Fatigue is the most common complaint among suspicious patients Of a long Covid. This symptom was reported by 528,000 people, followed by shortness of breath (388,000), myalgia (296,000), and loss of smell (285,000).

However, there is no medically agreed definition of condition. Professor Delaney told the email that part of the problem was a lack of “resources to find danger signals such as hypoxia in the blood and neurological problems such as vision problems.”

And while more and more professionals are working on “developing diagnostic criteria” and treating the condition, they say WiredThe process is “complexed by the number and variety of symptoms patients report.”

“Multiple system atrophy”

Studies published in Lancet Last month, we identified up to 200 possible symptoms of Covid, from fatigue and blurred vision to amnesia, menstrual cycle confusion, and hallucinations.

As part of an effort to more accurately characterize the condition, a review by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) The condition is “subdivided into at least four different syndromes, Wired report. These include “Post-intensive Care Syndrome, Long-Term Organ Injury, Post-Viral Fatigue Syndrome, and New: Long-Term Syndrome Caused by Continuation of Covid-19 Symptoms.”

Still, the magazine adds, “It accurately defines how long Covid is a difficult business,” adding that even the name of the condition is “country-specific.”

Elizabeth Murray, a professor of primary care at University College London, defines Longcovid as “a polyphyletic disorder that can affect the brain and body.” Murray, who runs a long Covid Clinic, has “not yet been treated” for many of the effects of this syndrome, but “how to help patients with common symptoms such as fatigue, brain fog, and shortness of breath.” I know, “he told the email. anxiety”.

“They need rehab professionals such as occupational therapists, physiotherapists, nutritionists, and psychologists,” she said.

However, in Scotland, the difficulty of setting up a clinic to treat Covid patients has proven difficult. Health Minister Humza Yousaf warned that infections could increase after the coronavirus restrictions were relaxed, but excluded “establishing a specialized clinic to address the long-term effects of a pandemic.” did. Times Report.

In an interview Sunday show At BBC Radio Scotland, Yousaf will fund such clinics to absorb the “valuable” resources needed in other areas of medical services, and the country will “keep the entire group of professionals away from the NHS.” I warned that I couldn’t.

In a positive opinion, Wired said, “new variants and mass vaccinations will inevitably have some impact on the condition.”And National Medical Technology Evaluation Organization Allotted £ 30m for research About the effectiveness of drugs, rehabilitation, dietary changes, and weight loss management in the treatment of long covids.

One of the “surprise” options being considered is “using drug therapy in combination with complementary therapies,” Mail said. “For example, the treatment of symptoms such as dyspnea combines yoga breathing (simply a type of deep breathing technique), meditation, supplements, acupuncture with established medications such as heart rate beta-blockers and ivabradine. And heart rate etc. may relieve fatigue. “

Other treatments being studied include “antihistamines in combination with a low-histamine diet” and a “very low-carbohydrate” ketogenic “diet” that reduces “levels of inflammation and respiratory distress”. ..

To speed up the process of finding successful treatments, ICL’s Delaney met with about 35 experts to share and discuss their experience in treating long Covid patients.

“I soon realized that no one knew what was going on,” he told the email. “So I started connecting with other doctors.”

But while their joint efforts are beginning to produce results, Delaney warns that there are “no magic bullets” in the fight to tackle the long Covid.