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Long Covid: the evidence of lingering heart damage

Melissa Vanier, a 52-year-old postal worker from Vancouver, had just returned from holiday in Cuba when she fell seriously ill with COVID-19. “For the entire month of March I felt like I had broken glass in my throat,” she says, describing a range of symptoms that included fever, migraines, extreme fatigue, memory loss and brain fog. “I had to sleep on my stomach because otherwise it felt like someone was strangling me.”

By the third week of March, Vanier had tested negative for Sars-CoV-2 – the virus that causes Covid-19. But although the virus had left her body, this would prove to be just the beginning of her problems. In May, she noticed from her Fitbit that her heart rate appeared to be highly abnormal. When cardiologists conducted a nuclear stress test – a diagnostic tool that measures the blood flow to the heart – it showed she had ischaemic heart disease, meaning that the heart was not getting sufficient blood and oxygen.

Similar stories illustrate a wider trend – that the coronavirus can leave patients with lasting heart damage long after the initial symptoms have dissipated.

Cardiologists are still trying to find out exactly why some people are left with enduring heart problems despite having had an apparently mild bout of COVID-19. The underlying mechanisms are thought to be slow and subtle changes that are quite different to those that put strain on the heart during the acute illness, especially in patients who have been hospitalised with the disease.

Some cardiologists have suggested that treatments such as cholesterol-lowering drugs, aspirin or beta blockers may help patients with lingering cardiovascular effects many weeks or months after the initial infection, but the evidence remains limited.

“It is too early to share data on this,” says Mitrani. “But these therapies have proven efficacy in other inflammatory heart muscle diseases. They have anti-inflammatory effects and we believe may help counter some of the lingering pro-inflammatory effects from Covid-19.”

But for patients such as Vanier, there remains a long and uncertain road to see whether her heart does fully recover from the impact of the virus. “Psychologically this has been brutal,” she says. “I haven’t been back to work since I went on holiday in February. The heart hasn’t improved, and I now have to wait for more tests to see if they can find out more.”

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Source: The Guardian, 4 October 2020

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Long COVID: The debilitating after-effects of coronavirus

COVID-19 became a pandemic in March 2020, but the after-effects of it are becoming more apparent as many people are suffering from a wide variety of symptoms months after contracting the disease.

Long COVID – as it is being called – has been affecting some of the earliest COVID-19 sufferers since the first few months of 2020, but little is known about it and the huge variety of symptoms is making research very difficult.

Sky News looks at what the symptoms of long COVID are, how it has affected people's lives, how many are suffering, what treatments there are and how it could affect the economy.

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Source: Sky News, 19 October 2020

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Long COVID: symptoms experienced during infection may predict lasting illness

Researchers from the 'Therapies for Long COVID (TLC) Study Group' at the University of Birmingham are studying long COVID is and what influences it by pooling data from lots of separate studies to find out the prevalence of reported symptoms and to see what the impacts and complications of long COVID are.

Their review showed just how varied long COVID is. Patients may experience symptoms related to any system in the body – including respiratory, neurological and gastroenterological symptoms. The pooled data showed that the ten most commonly reported symptoms in long COVID are fatigue, shortness of breath, muscle pain, cough, headache, joint pain, chest pain, an altered sense of smell, diarrhoea and altered taste.

Other common symptoms include “brain fog” – when thinking is fuzzy and sluggish – memory loss, disordered sleep, heart palpitations and a sore throat. Rare but important outcomes include thoughts of self-harm and suicide and even seizures.

Most long COVID patients complain of symptoms experienced during their acute infection persisting beyond it, with the number of symptoms experienced tending to decline as patients move from acute to long COVID. Some, though, report developing new symptoms during their long COVID illness, while some also report symptoms reoccuring that had previously resolved themselves.

What the huge variability of long COVID suggests is that it actually comprises a number of different syndromes, potentially with different underlying causes. A better understanding of the underlying biological and immunological mechanisms of long COVID is therefore urgently needed if we’re to develop effective treatments for it.

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Source: The Conversation, 27 July 2021

 

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Long Covid: St Annes man 'never recovered' from long-term effects

A man who was the last patient to leave Blackpool Victoria Hospital's intensive care unit after being treated for COVID-19 in July has died.

Roehl Ribaya spent 60 days in intensive care in the summer but "never recovered" from the long-term effects of the virus. 

The Filipino aerospace engineer's family said the virus had taken a heavy toll on the 47-year-old even after he was discharged from hospital on 14 August. He had a cardiac arrest on 13 October and was in a coma until he died two days later.

His wife, Mrs Ricio-Ribaya, who lives in St Annes in Lancashire, said: "He was never the same. He was so breathless all the time.

"Please follow the government's advice so we can stop this virus. We don't want any more to die."

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Source: BBC News, 20 October 2020

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Long Covid: protesters outside the White House demand better care

Protesters took to the pavement outside the White House on 19 September to demand a better deal for people affected by Long Covid, complaining that the Biden administration’s plans fell short on action and funding.

“The pandemic is over,” President Joe Biden declared the night before in a pre-recorded interview which aired on the news magazine 60 Minutes. “We still have a problem with covid,” he said. “We’re still doing a lot of work on it but the pandemic is over. If you notice, no one’s wearing masks. Everybody seems to be in pretty good shape. And, so, I think it’s changing.”

But the scene outside the presidential mansion the next day belied that message. Wearing black masks and red shirts, protesters called for research, medical treatment, and social services for those with Long Covid. Around half would qualify for a diagnosis of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome. The protest was organised by #MEAction, an international network of patient advocates.

“I went undiagnosed for 15 years, because doctors are not educated about the condition,” Jennifer Nish told The BMJ. Nish, from Lubbock, Texas, said that she was inspired to help organise the protest to raise awareness. “I don’t want anyone to go through what I had to go through,” she said and called on “the White House to treat this like the emergency that it is.”

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Source: BMJ, 20 September 2022

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Long Covid: overlap emerges with ME – including debate over treatment

As more people suffer lasting symptoms from Covid including fatigue, ME patient advocates fear they will get bad advice,

Based on current estimates, about 10% of COVID-19 patients develop lasting symptoms, one of the most common being fatigue. The underlying mechanism is still unclear, but possible explanations include reduced oxygen supply to tissues caused by heart or lung damage, or muscle weakness from prolonged bed rest.

However, some doctors are increasingly concerned about the overlap between long Covid and another largely virus-triggered illness: “It’s extraordinary how many people have a postviral syndrome that’s very strikingly similar to myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME)/chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS),” said the US’s top public health official, Dr Anthony Fauci, in July. “They just don’t get back to normal energy or normal feeling of good health.”

Like people with ME/CFS, many long-Covid patients report headaches, brain fog, sleep problems, a racing heart, joint and muscle pain and fatigue. Some also experience a relapse of fever, muscle pain and exhaustion, known as “post-exertional malaise”, if they exercise beyond their capabilities.

“There are so many similarities between long Covid and ME/CFS it leads me to believe the underlying pathology is probably the same – except that long Covid is presenting as an epidemic, whereas ME/CFS has presented in a very sporadic way, and by no means in such large numbers in such a short space of time,” said Dr William Weir, a consultant in infectious diseases with a special interest in ME.

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Source: The Guardian, 19 November 2020

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Long Covid: NHS legal action launched by family of girl

The mother of an 11-year-old Aberdeenshire girl with Long Covid has launched a legal action against their health board, in what lawyers claim is the first case of its kind in Scotland.

Helen Goss, from Westhill, is seeking damages from NHS Grampian on behalf of her daughter, Anna Hendy.

The action claims the health board is responsible for "multiple failings" in Anna's treatment and care.

The claim alleges failings were avoidable, that they caused Anna "injury and damage", and led to her condition worsening.

Anna became unwell after contracting Covid in 2020.

The action alleges a number of failings by the health board.

These include claims that requests for Anna to be referred to the specialist paediatric services of immunology and neurology were refused.

It also claims no further help was offered after Anna was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) and Paediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANS).

And it says these failings "could have been avoided had NHS Grampian followed contemporary guidance on diagnosis and treatment".

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Source: BBC, 19 January 2024

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Long Covid: nearly 2m days lost in NHS staff absences in England

NHS trusts in England lost nearly 2m days in staff absences due to long Covid in the first 18 months of the pandemic, according to figures that reveal the hidden burden of ongoing illness in the health service.

MPs on the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on coronavirus estimate that more than 1.82m days were lost to healthcare workers with long Covid from March 2020 to September 2021 across England’s 219 NHS trusts.

The estimate is based on data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act from 70 NHS trusts and does not include the impact of the highly transmissible Omicron variant that has fulled record-breaking waves of infection in the UK and globally since it was first detected in November.

Layla Moran, the Liberal Democrat MP who chairs the APPG, said the government had paid “almost no attention to long Covid and the severe impact it was having on vital public services” and called for immediate support for those affected.

“Thousands of frontline workers are now living with an often debilitating condition after being exposed to the virus while protecting this country,” she said. “They cannot now be abandoned.”

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Source: The Guardian, 24 January 2022

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Long Covid: MRI scans reveal new clues to symptoms

People living with long Covid after being admitted to hospital are more likely to show some damage to major organs, according to a new study.

MRI scans revealed patients were three times more likely to have some abnormalities in multiple organs such as the lungs, brain and kidneys.

Researchers believe there is a link with the severity of the illness.

It is hoped the UK study will help in the development of more effective treatments for Long Covid.

The study, published in Lancet Respiratory Medicine, looked at 259 patients who fell so ill with the virus that they were admitted to hospital.

Five months after they were discharged, MRI scans of their major organs showed some significant differences when compared to a group of 52 people who had never had Covid.

The biggest impact was seen on the lungs, where the scans were 14 times more likely to show abnormalities.

MRI scans were also three times more likely to show some abnormalities in the brain - and twice as likely in the kidneys - among people who had had severe Covid.

Dr Betty Raman, from the University of Oxford and one of the lead investigators on the study, says it is clear that those living with long Covid symptoms are more likely to have experienced some organ damage.

She said: "The patient's age, how severely ill they were with Covid, as well as if they had other illnesses at the same time, were all significant factors in whether or not we found damage to these important organs in the body."

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Source: BBC News, 23 September 2023

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Long Covid: More than 1 million experiencing symptoms in UK

More than one million people in the UK are suffering from signs of Long Covid, the Office for National Statistics has said.

This is a significant increase in previous estimates of persistent and debilitating symptoms and follows the January surge in coronavirus infections across the UK.

The ONS said a total of 1.1 million people in the UK reported experiencing Long Covid symptoms lasting beyond four weeks after infection with COVID-19 that were not explained any something else.

Long Covid can include chronic fatigue, shortness of breath, so called ‘brain fog’ as well as serious organ damage to the kidneys, heart and lungs. The ONS found the symptoms were impacting on the day to day lives of 674,000 people, with almost 200,000 people reporting their ability to carry out normal activities had been severely limited.

Of those reporting symptoms, almost 700,000 reported having a Covid infection in the previous three months, but 70,000 said it was over a year since their infection.

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Source: The Independent, 1 April 2021

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Long COVID: Meet the young family who have all suffered symptoms for an entire year

As the UK looks to mark the first anniversary of the first COVID-19 lockdown on 23 March, Sky News has spoken to one family who say they have lived constantly with the after effects of the virus for a year.

Charlie, 37, her husband Zed, 41, and their five children – Nico, 15, Beck, 12, Indiana, 10, Emmett, 8, and Mimi, 5 – fell ill with the virus in March last year.

All of them – particularly the children – have been suffering ever since.

Charlie said the list of symptoms is "extensive", including headaches, eye issues, nose bleeds, body rashes, horrific tummy pains, gastric issues, severe lethargy, allergic reactions, peeling hands, and feet and mouth ulcers.

"It's such a long list that at times you can't believe that they've all been related to this illness," Charlie said.

The family have been getting help from a support group, Long COVID Kids, which wants specialist clinics to be set up for children with the condition.

Charlie said the ordeal the family has been through "really made me question my sanity at times". She added: "Long COVID centres are being set up, but they're not for children, so there is nowhere for them to be referred to. I'm really worried about the long-term health issues."

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Source: Sky News, 13 March 2021

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Long Covid: Major study into the long term impact launched in Scotland

Every adult who has tested positive for COVID-19 in Scotland is to be invited to take part in a major new study into the effects of long Covid.

Researchers hope to identify how many people in Scotland continue to be unwell after having the virus.

The Covid in Scotland Study (CISS) will ask people what their symptoms are and how it affects their lives. Those taking part will be asked to use a phone app to answer questions about their health before and after Covid.

Early estimates suggest as many as 6,000 people in Scotland were experiencing long term symptoms after the first wave of the pandemic but it is not known what that tally is now.

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Source: BBC News, 12 May 2021

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Long Covid: How knowledge of ME could help sufferers

While both ME and long Covid, or post-Covid syndrome, are long-term illnesses, they aren’t the same thing. But, there are ways in which our knowledge of ME has helped experts treat long Covid. It’s also helped those with the illness understand what they’re going through. Evan was diagnosed with ME in 2017, and she believes her experience can help her support those living with long Covid.

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Source: BBC News, 26 November 2020

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Long Covid: Hospital patients to get checks at six weeks

Patients in hospital with coronavirus should be offered a follow-up six weeks later to check for "long Covid" symptoms, doctors are being advised.

The guidance, drawn up by health officials across the UK, says the long-term effects can be "significant". They identified 28 of the most common symptoms, from breathlessness and dizziness to chest pain.

Mental health problems including depression, anxiety and struggling to think clearly, have also been reported.

"Because this is a new condition, there is still much that we don't know about it," said Paul Chrisp of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, which produces health guidance.

The NHS has opened 69 specialist clinics across England to offer rehabilitation to people recovering from the disease.

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Source: BBC News, 18 December 2020

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Long Covid: Hope for diagnostic tests

Researchers at Imperial College London have found a pattern of rouge antibodies that may allow a simple blood test to diagnose Long Covid in the next 6 to 18 months. 

Currently, there is no diagnostic test for Long Covid and the condition is not yet fully understood, and with the rise in cases, it is not yet known if the vaccination can protect patients from getting long-term symptoms. 

However, leading the research team at Imperial College London, Professor Danny Altmann believes the research could allow for a test to be performed in a GP surgery. And regarding the rising cases, Professor Altmann has said "If we're heading into a phase of 100,000 cases per day, and, we're saying that 10-20% of all infections can result in long Covid, I can see no certainty that we're not brewing those long Covid cases despite having a vaccinated population,"

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Source: BBC News, 12 July 2021

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Long Covid: Health staff go to court for compensation

Nearly 70 healthcare workers with Long Covid will take their fight to the High Court later to sue the NHS and other employers for compensation.

The staff, from England and Wales, believe they first caught Covid at work during the pandemic and say they were not properly protected from the virus.

Many of them say they are left with life-changing disabilities and are likely to lose income as a result.

The Department of Health said "there are lessons to be learnt" from Covid.

The group believe they were not provided with adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) at work, which includes eye protection, gloves, gowns and aprons.

In particular, they say they should have had access to high-grade masks, which help block droplets in the air from patient's coughs and sneezes which can contain the Covid virus.

But the masks they were given tended to be in line with national guidance.

Rachel Hext, who is 36, has always insisted that she caught Covid in her job as a nurse in a small community hospital in Devon.

"It's devastating. I live an existence rather than a life. It prevents me doing so much of what I want to do. And it's been four years."

Her list of long Covid symptoms includes everything from brain fog and extreme fatigue to nerve damage, and deafness in one ear.

Solicitor Kevin Digby, who represents more than 60 members of the group, describes their case as "very important".

He says: "It's quite harrowing. These people really have been abandoned, and they are really struggling to fight to get anything.

"Now, they can take it to court and hope that they can get some compensation for the injuries that they've suffered."

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Source: BBC News, 6 March 2024

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Long Covid: doctors find ‘antibody signature’ for patients most at risk

Doctors have discovered an “antibody signature” that can help identify patients most at risk of developing long Covid, a condition where debilitating symptoms of the disease can persist for many months.

Researchers at University hospital Zurich analysed blood from Covid patients and found that low levels of certain antibodies were more common in those who developed long Covid than in patients who swiftly recovered.

When combined with the patient’s age, details of their Covid symptoms and whether or not they had asthma, the antibody signature allowed doctors to predict whether people had a moderate, high or very high risk of developing long-term illness.

“Overall, we think that our findings and identification of an immunoglobulin signature will help early identification of patients that are at increased risk of developing long Covid, which in turn will facilitate research, understanding and ultimately targeted treatments for long Covid,” said Onur Boyman, a professor of immunology who led the research.

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Source: The Guardian, 25 January 2022

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Long covid: Damage to multiple organs presents in young, low risk patients

Young, low risk patients with ongoing symptoms of COVID-19 had signs of damage to multiple organs four months after initially being infected, a preprint study has suggested.

Initial data from 201 patients suggest that almost 70% had impairments in one or more organs four months after their initial symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

The results emerged as the NHS announced plans to establish a network of more than 40 long covid specialist clinics across England this month to help patients with long term symptoms of infection.

The prospective Coverscan study examined the impact of long covid (persistent symptoms three months post infection) across multiple organs in low risk people who are relatively young and had no major underlying health problems. 

The research has not yet been peer reviewed and could not establish a causal link between organ impairment and infection. But the authors said the results had “implications not only for [the] burden of long covid but also public health approaches which have assumed low risk in young people with no comorbidities.”

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Source: BMJ, 17 November 2020

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Long Covid: ‘It’s a year since I’ve felt like myself’

Today is an anniversary that George Hencken never imagined. It is exactly one year since she caught COVID-19. But unlike most people who have suffered from the disease, she remains ill.

“It’s a year since I’ve felt like myself,” she said. “It’s a year since my life as I knew it came to an end. And I don’t know if I’m going to get it back again.”

Long Covid doesn’t quite describe the depths of her fatigue. “It’s not tiredness. It’s like having jet lag and a hangover. It feels like I’ve been poisoned,” she said.

The problem for Hencken and the thousands still suffering from the virus months later is that long Covid doesn’t describe much at all.

The umbrella term covers people who are breathless and fatigued, or who have brain fog, headaches and tingling arms, or who have chest pains and heart palpitations, or all of those and dozens more symptoms besides.

Support groups such as LongCovidSOS have been fighting hard for the condition to be recognised and taken seriously – sufferers say they feel disbelieved, and doctors initially had little information, support or even funding.

Last week the government announced £18.5m through the National Institute for Health Research to fund four major studies attempting to understand exactly what long Covid means, why it affects so many apparently healthy people, and how they can be helped. Research by University College London will track the health of 60,000 people, including people with long Covid and a control group who will wear a Fitbit-style wristband to measure heart rate, breathing and exercise levels.

The aim is to chart and identify clusters of symptoms, Professor Nishi Chaturvedi said. “My sense is that the multiplicity of symptoms that people are reporting suggests to me and many others that it’s not one thing, but several syndromes. We’re not even at the starting point yet of knowing what it is,” she said.

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Source: The Guardian, 20 February 2021

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Long Covid: ‘fraction’ of patients getting NHS help in England

Just a “fraction” of people with Long Covid is getting the help they need, with a third of them waiting more than three and a half months to be assessed after a GP referral, rising to almost half in some areas.

More than 60,000 people in England had a first assessment for post-Covid syndrome in an NHS specialist service between July 2021 and August 2022.

But the latest estimates released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that about 277,000 people with Long Covid in England report that the disease has limited their day-to-day activities “a lot”. These are the people that experts would expect to be referred for an assessment; however, the numbers who have been seen are far lower.

Dr Helen Salisbury, a GP and columnist for the BMJ, said: “A fraction of the people who have got this problem are actually being seen” within the existing services.

She said reasons could include patients not realising that the help is available to them; GPs not recognising Long Covid in those who do not self-label as having the condition; and a lack of knowledge of, and local access to, specialised clinics.

While Salisbury conceded that there was no current cure for long Covid, she added that patients require treatment that involves symptom management, psychology and knowing they are not alone in their diagnosis.

Ondine Sherwood, a co-founder of the advocacy charity Long Covid SOS, said many people with long Covid “are struggling to get any healthcare. Many are not getting any treatment at all.”

She said public misconceptions around long Covid made it harder for sufferers to ask for and get help. “There was a lack of preparedness for the potential long-term morbidity which was not conveyed to healthcare professionals and this has contributed to the lack of care for long Covid.”

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Source: The Guardian, 27 October 2022

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Long Covid: 'Life might never be normal again' (video)

Coronavirus patients who have lived with symptoms for up to five months have spoken about the huge impact it has had on their lives.

"Long Covid" support groups have appeared on social media and the government says "tens of thousands" of people have long-term problems after catching the virus, such as extreme fatigue.

Daliah, from Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, said: "It's scary because we don't know how permanent this is. There are times where I feel like life will never be normal again, my body will never be normal again."

The NHS has launched a Your Covid Recovery website to offer support and advice to people affected.

See video here

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Long Covid: 'I'm not the same person'

A nurse says the effects of "long Covid" mean she is "not the same person any more".

Lynne Wakefield from Holyhead is still suffering with fatigue and "brain fog" after contracting Covid in June 2020. She said her employer had been "very good" supporting her, but other NHS staff told BBC Wales they felt pressurised to go back to work.

The NHS Confederation said there was a package of support for staff affected by "longer term effects of Covid".

A recent survey suggested about 56,000 people in Wales have symptoms of long Covid, which include fatigue, headaches and coughing.

Other NHS workers with long Covid symptoms, who did not want to be named, told BBC Wales Live how they feel about the ways they are being treated by their employers:

"I knew that returning to work would put my recovery at risk, but it was work or starve. On my return, I was informed that any further days absent in the next 12 months would result in a formal warning."

"I'm so worried about losing my job as I've been off work for so long and I'm still nowhere near well enough to return."

"If they say I have to come back or be dismissed, I'll have to do it, I'll have to try [and go back] and survive. I am so emotional at the moment, I can't stop crying - I feel I am going crazy."

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Source: BBC News, 28 April 2021

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Long Covid symptoms ease after vaccination, survey finds

COVID-19 vaccines tend to alleviate the symptoms of long Covid, according to a large survey of more than 800 people that suggests mRNA vaccines, in particular, are beneficial.

Although COVID-19 was initially understood to be a largely respiratory illness from which most would recover within a few weeks, as the pandemic wore on increasing numbers of people reported experiencing symptoms for months on end. There is no consensus definition of the condition of these people who have symptoms ranging from chronic fatigue to organ damage, let alone a standardised treatment plan.

As vaccines hit the mainstream, concerns arose that vaccination could precipitate relapses or a worsening of symptoms. But conversely, anecdotal reports suggested that vaccines helped some people with long Covid.

The analysis, which is yet to be peer reviewed, was conducted on the basis of a survey of 812 people (mostly white, female participants) with long Covid in advocacy groups in the UK and internationally who were contacted via social media. The participants (a small proportion of whom also said they had ME/CFS) were asked to wait at least a week after their first dose to avoid their responses conflating with side-effects of the vaccine.

In general, those who received mRNA vaccines (Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna) reported more improvements in symptoms, compared with those who got an adenovirus vaccine (Oxford/AstraZeneca). In particular, those who received the Moderna vaccine were more likely to see improvements in symptoms such as fatigue, brain fog and muscle pain, and less likely to report a deterioration, the analysis found.

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Source: The Guardian, 18 May 2021

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Long Covid sufferers should be offered psychiatric care if symptoms last more than 12 weeks

People who suffer from the debilitating effects of long Covid should be offered psychiatric care, the first clinical guidance to be published on the subject recommends.

The guidelines urge healthcare professionals to look out for signs that patients who continue to suffer symptoms of COVID-19 for weeks after contracting the virus are at risk of self-harm.

In the new advice, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the Royal College of General Practitioners, say people with ongoing symptomatic COVID-19 or suspected post-Covid 19 syndrome, whose symptoms last longer than 12 weeks, should be “urgently” referred for assessment if they have severe psychiatric symptoms or are at risk of self-harm or suicide.

The guidelines state: “Follow relevant national or local guidelines on referral for people who have anxiety and mood disorders or other psychiatric symptoms. Consider referral for psychological therapies if they have common mental health symptoms, such as symptoms of mild anxiety and mild depression, or to a liaison psychiatry service if they have more complex needs (especially if they have a complex physical and mental health presentation).”

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Source: The Telegraph, 18 December 2020

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Long Covid sufferer's call for better support

A doctor from Leeds who developed Long Covid and the debilitating effects of ME has said NHS patients like her have been “left to rot”.

Becky Williams, 34, first caught Covid in March 2020 and has been left house-bound ever since, with her symptoms including extreme fatigue, brain fog and pain.

Dr Williams, who said she had "lost my job, lost friends, lost my independence", has joined about 200 other healthcare workers who have signed a letter calling on the government to provide better support for patients with these conditions.

The Department of Health and Social Care said the government would “ensure patients receive the care they deserve”.

Dr Williams initially developed Long Covid, but for the past two years has also met the criteria for ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis), also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).

Often developing after an acute viral or bacterial infection from which people are unable to fully recover, ME has many overlapping features with Long Covid.

It is estimated at least 250,000 people in the UK have ME, which affects multiple systems within the body and which can lead to symptoms like fatigue and a flu-like malaise.

Dr Williams said she had signed a letter organised by campaign group #ThereforME calling on Health Secretary Wes Streeting to improve care.

The letter asked Mr Streeting and the government to acknowledge that gaps in NHS care for ME patients were leading to "serious patient safety concerns".

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Source: BBC News, 17 September 2024

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