Long Covid invisibility has an even longer history

Estimate 65 million people worldwide and 2 million in the UK I have long Covid. I am also one of them.

Having first contracted COVID-19 early in the pandemic, I spent March 2020 gasping for breath.As my personal experience over the past few years explores the history of the post-virus condition to understand the stigma that I and many other long covid patients have endured in getting proper treatment. Despite clear evidence of such diseases throughout history, a lack of understanding and research has led patients to “delayed or complete lack of clinical care” today. Little did I know that a clear (and as yet widely unknown) narrative would emerge that would fundamentally change the way we look at the post-virus situation. We believe this now presents a significant opportunity to shift perceptions as Long Covid unfolds.

“When I suddenly fell ill in March 2020, I was taken out of breath to A&E…they said I was having a panic attack.”

I was incredibly lucky to avoid hospitalization, but as the months passed, I also didn’t get the expected recovery. I realized that I was doing But most terrifying of all is the often-forgotten location. Despite the huge number of long Covid sufferers, this is a condition that blinds both ourselves and their sufferers. and silenced by waves of nausea – just as the disease itself evades many (not all) the traditional mode of medical investigation. This sense of invisibility pushed me to explore further.

For centuries, patients survived the plague, but the seemingly endless nature of the condition changed their lives. “Changes in Perception” Found in survivors of the Russian flu pandemics of 1889 and 1892 (a common symptom of long Covid, now called “brain fog”). Similarly, smallpox and polio are now known to cause long-lasting conditions months, years and decades after initial infection. Scale of post-polio syndrome Up to 85% of survivors, including those with milder disease, could develop muscle weakness and pain 30 years after infection.long covid is far from the beginning A post-virus state that emerges all at once in the wake of a pandemic.

“Long-term COVID-19 patients have had to contend with waves of misinformation and stigma to access medical care.”

Traces of epidemic-induced post-viral conditions can be seen throughout history. However, these patients are often forgotten as soon as the acute phase is over. Even the 1918 “Spanish Flu” pandemic, to which COVID-19 is most often compared in the media, caused a post-viral state in survivors.Historian Laura Spinney explain the scale The importance of this problem as a problem with a huge economic impact, much like Long Covid started today. Died, but still mostly written out of collective memorywith those suffering from the “long flu”.

But long Covid doesn’t have to go the “long flu” route.Instead, it could present a turning point as patients battle to define the condition on their own terms. born from the patient community On Twitter, I speak out against the medical term “Post-Covid Syndrome.” Access to social media has broken down some of the isolating nature of our condition. But unlike before, you can participate in new forms of activity.Scholars such as Felicity Callard claimed Long Covid may be the first disease identified and articulated by patient communities on social media. Modern medicine, technology, and globalization have made it possible to build an online network that has successfully drawn attention to the disease, named its symptoms, and called on medical professionals for further investigation. We have been able to raise public awareness of the risks of Long Covid and create solidarity among people with different post-virus conditions.

But defining disease is only half the battle. When I fell ill in March 2020, I was rushed to A&E, gasping for breath and nearly collapsing. Instead, my symptoms must be panic attacks. In fact my lungs were severely inflamed from his COVID-19 infection. Three years later, I was able to get specialist long Covid NHS treatment to repair the lingering damage to my respiratory system. During that time, I had to bear the physical and mental burden of tracking and treating my symptoms.

For too long, Covid patients have had to contend with waves of misinformation and stigma in order to get medical care. This is by no means unique. widely dismissed as a hypochondriac or psychological problem until the late 1990s. I hope we have a chance now to stop history from repeating itself. By sharing our symptoms, knowledge and stories, Long Covid sufferers can challenge the common tendency to downplay our experience.

As this pandemic recedes into the past, we ask for only one thing. don’t forget us