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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. Read full story Source: BBC News, 12 May 2021

On Christmas Day, Gail Jackson’s 16-year-old daughter said she was in so much pain she thought she would die. Liliana had been briefly admitted to hospital with Covid in September. Her symptoms never went away and, as time went on, new ones had emerged. “For months she had a relentless, agonising headache, nausea, tinnitus, fatigue and insomnia, but the worst thing was the agonising nerve pain,” said Jackson. “I couldn’t even touch her without her screaming in pain.” On Christmas morning, Jackson drove to hospital with her daughter vomiting from pain in the passenger seat. When they got to the hospital, however, the A&E doctor said there was no such thing as long Covid in children. “He said she just needed to go home and get on with her life,” Jackson said. “It was jaw-dropping.” It is extremely rare for children and young people to contract severe Covid, but recent research has shown that even mild or asymptomatic infection can lead to long Covid in children. A study at UCL is investigating long Covid in 11- to 17-year-olds who were not hospitalised with the disease. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended more research to produce guidance on how children and young people are affected and how they can be treated. However, there is no case definition of long Covid in children and young people in the way there is in adults. Read full story Source: The Independent, 3 May 2021

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." Read full story Source: BBC News, 28 April 2021

Millions of people worldwide are suffering from an array of symptoms months after contracting COVID-19. This article talks about the impact Long Covid is having on people's lives and how it strikes both young and old. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times, 24 April 2021

More than 80 new clinics to assess patients suffering with symptoms of Long Covid are to be opened by the NHS by the end of this month with an extra investment of £24m. NHS England chief executive Sir Simon Stevens said the health service must “continue to expand its offer for Long Covid” adding there will be even more funding earmarked for the problem in the future. Speaking at the Health Service Journal’s leadership congress on Wednesday, Sir Simon said: “We have 69 clinics identified last year and we will have 83 long Covid clinics in place by the end of this month, so a significant expansion there. “We will be backing that with at least £24 million revenue funding going into this New Year, up from the £10 million announced last year, and there will be more to come on the back of that as well.” Recent estimates by the Office for National Statistics found more than a million people could be experiencing long Covid beyond four weeks with 674,000 people saying it was affecting their day to day lives. Almost 200,000 people have said their ability to carry out normal activities has been severely limited by the condition. Read full story Source: The Independent, 14 April 2021

Lyth Hishmeh kept feeling ill months after contracting coronavirus a year ago in March. He had chest pain and couldn't concentrate. At 26 years old, the former regular runner was fatigued and breathless, struggling to function properly. Yet medical professionals kept telling him he simply could not still be ill. "They were telling me it's all in my head," he said. For Hishmeh who lives in London and many sufferers of long Covid, proving they are sick has become a big part of trying to get better. Another Londoner, Monique Jackson, has lost count of the number of times her pain was described as 'just anxiety.' The 32-year old illustrator was repeatedly told by medical professionals to go to the accidents and emergency, only to be discharged soon after. "I felt like I was wasting people's time, that people either didn't believe me ... or the ones who were sympathetic and supportive said 'we don't know, it's a new disease and we just don't know,'" she said. Clinics are springing up around the country for what some call a potential second pandemic: Long Covid. Learning that they were not alone, that other people were experiencing the same issues, was a huge revelation for both Hishmeh and Jackson. This was not just in their heads. They were not imagining the pain. They really were sick. Read full story Source: CNN Health, 11 April 2021

The number of people suffering with long Covid should be published routinely, as happens with those infected with or hospitalised with coronavirus, MPs and peers are urging Boris Johnson. The cross-party group of parliamentarians want the prime minister to ensure that the “untold human suffering” that the condition involves helps shape future government policy towards the pandemic. Thirty-two MPs and 33 peers have signed a letter urging Johnson to give greater priority to the potential harm posed by long Covid following the Office for National Statistics’ finding last week that an estimated 1.1m people are suffering its effects – far more than previously thought. The signatories come from eight parties and include the Tory MP Dr Dan Poulter, a former health minister; Lord Darzi, the surgeon and ex-health minister; and the SNP MP Dr Philippa Whitford, who is an NHS breast surgeon. In the letter, coordinated by the all-party parliamentary group on coronavirus, they say: “Cases, hospitalisations and deaths are not the only measure of this pandemic. We urge the government to also count the number of people left with long Covid, many of them whose lives have been devastated by this pandemic. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 9 April 2021

Health coach Jasmine Hayer had to give up her life in London and move back in with her parents after catching Covid. Now she is focused on a twin goal - battling back to health while helping others get the right treatment for Long Covid. Dr William Man, the head of the Royal Brompton Hospital's chest clinic, started treating her in December, as part of a clinic seeing 100 severe long Covid cases in the UK. Jasmine describes it as a "complete game changer". However, she worries that other so-called "long haulers" are not getting the help they need because they face "such a battle" to be taken seriously. She decided to start a blog to document her symptoms and wants to share her story as widely as possible in the hope of helping others. "I've had messages from around the world and I was so happy to hear that one girl has shown her doctor my blog and he is giving her more tests as a result," she says. "I know how lonely and scary it is when you are fighting to be believed. You are literally on your own." Read full story Source: BBC News, 7 April 2021

Long Covid patients have voiced growing frustration at a “postcode lottery” in clinical support for debilitating symptoms, with some areas of the UK offering no specialist clinics more than a year after coronavirus took hold. Other sufferers said they were disappointed by long Covid clinics investigating certain symptoms only, with no comprehensive treatment plan. Official figures suggest there are almost 700,000 Britons with Covid symptoms lasting over three months. In October, NHS England announced more than £10m for a network of clinics bringing together doctors, nurses, therapists and other NHS staff to conduct physical and psychological assessments and recommend treatments for long Covid patients. Additional local funding would also be available to help establish a clinic in every area, the NHS England chief executive, Simon Stevens, said. By December, 69 clinics had been set up in England with a further 12 sites earmarked to launch in January. But Louise Barnes, founder of the Post Acute Covid Syndrome 19 (Pacs19) patient advocacy group, said a survey of 200 British members revealed about 90% had not been able to access a clinic because there wasn’t one available, their GP could not refer them or they were declined without explanation. Others were disappointed by the type of services on offer. Barnes said: “Patients in the UK have waited going on a year to get support for the multitude of symptoms they’ve been experiencing. To finally think you are going to get referred to a clinic but your GP tells you they don’t have any information, or you get there to find it’s a ‘respiratory-only clinic’ or only staffed by physiotherapists leaves them feeling despondent. For the most part, sadly, patients are coming away massively feeling let down and with no viable treatment plan offered – even a rudimentary one, whilst a treatment is found." Read full story Source: The Guardian, 6 April 2021

Intense pressures on the already overstretched NHS are being exacerbated by the tens of thousands of health staff who are sick with Long Covid, doctors and hospital bosses say. At least 122,000 NHS personnel have the condition, the Office for National Statistics disclosed in a detailed report that showed 1.1 million people in the UK were affected by the condition. That is more than any other occupational group and ahead of teachers, of whom 114,000 have it. Patient care is being hit because many of those struggling with Long Covid are only able to work part-time, are too unwell to perform their usual duties, or often need time off because they are in pain, exhausted or have “brain fog”. “Ongoing illness can have a devastating impact on individual doctors, both physically and by leaving them unable to work. Furthermore, it puts a huge strain on the health service, which was already vastly understaffed before the pandemic hit,” said Dr Helena McKeown, the workforce lead at the British Medical Association, which represents doctors. “With around 30,000 sickness absences currently linked to Covid in the NHS in England, we cannot afford to let any more staff become ill. Simply put, if they are off sick, they’re unable to provide care and patients will not get the care and treatment they need. “In the longer term, if more staff face ongoing illness from past COVID-19 infection, the implications for overall workforce numbers will be disastrous.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 3 April 2021

An estimated 10% to 30% of people who get COVID-19 suffer from lingering symptoms of the disease, or what's known as "long COVID." Judy Dodd, who lives in New York City, is one of them. She spent nearly a year plagued by headaches, shortness of breath, extreme fatigue and problems with smell, among other symptoms. She says she worried that this "slog through life" was going to be her new normal. Everything changed after she got her COVID-19 vaccine. "I was like a new person, it was the craziest thing ever," says Dodd, referring to how many of her health problems subsided significantly after her second shot. And she's not alone. As the U.S. pushes to get people vaccinated, a curious benefit is emerging for those with this post-illness syndrome: Their symptoms are easing and, in some cases, fully resolving after they get vaccinated. Judy Dodd suffered lingering symptoms of COVID-19 for nearly a year, until she got her vaccine. It's the latest clue in the immunological puzzle of long COVID, a still poorly understood condition that leaves some who get infected with wide-ranging symptoms months after the initial illness. The notion that a vaccine aimed at preventing the disease may also be a treatment has sparked optimism among patients, and scientists who study the post-illness syndrome are taking a close look at these stories. Read full story Source: NPR, 31 March 2021

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. Read full story Source: The Independent, 1 April 2021

Middle-aged women experience the most severe, long-lasting symptoms after being treated in hospital for COVID-19, two UK studies suggest. Five months on, 70% of patients studied were still affected by everything from anxiety to breathlessness, fatigue, muscle pain and "brain fog". But the researchers say there is no obvious link with how ill people originally became. How women's bodies fight off illness could explain their poorer recovery. The larger study - led by the University of Leicester - which is yet to be peer-reviewed, followed up more than 1,000 patients who had been admitted to hospital with Covid-19 in the UK last year. It found that up to 70% had not fully recovered, an average of five months after leaving hospital, with women most affected. A separate smaller pre-print study, led by University of Glasgow, found women under 50 were seven times more likely to be more breathless, and twice as likely to report worse fatigue than men of the same age who had had the illness, seven months after hospital treatment. Read full story Source: BBC News, 25 March 2021