Coping with the unknown – a family’s story of living with long COVID (July 2022)

Summary

In this blog, published by the World Health Organization, we hear about one family's experience of long Covid. Claire Hastie and her children are yet to recover and continue to experience numerous debilitating symptoms that prevent them from taking part in their pre-covid occupations. 

WHO/Europe has also been working with patient groups to define priority areas where action is needed. It is now calling upon governments and authorities to focus attention on long COVID and its sufferers through greater:

• recognition: all services must be adequately equipped, and no patient should be left alone or have to struggle to navigate through a system that is not prepared to, or not capable of, recognizing this very debilitating condition; 
• research and reporting: data gathering and reporting of cases, and well-coordinated research with full participation of patients, are needed to advance understanding of the prevalence, causes and costs of long COVID; and 
• rehabilitation: this cost-effective intervention is an investment in building back healthy and productive societies.