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Showing results for tags 'Long Covid'.
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Content ArticleWith the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, growing evidence shows that a considerable proportion of people who have recovered from COVID-19 have long-term effects on multiple organs and systems. A few longitudinal studies have reported on the persistent health effects of COVID-19, but the follow-up was limited to 1 year after acute infection. The aim of this study from Huang et al., published in Lancet Respiratory Medicine, was to characterise the longitudinal evolution of health outcomes in hospital survivors with different initial disease severity throughout 2 years after acute COVID-19 infection and to determine their recovery status. The study found thategardless of initial disease severity, COVID-19 survivors had longitudinal improvements in physical and mental health, with most returning to their original work within 2 years; however, the burden of symptomatic sequelae remained fairly high. COVID-19 survivors had a remarkably lower health status than the general population at 2 years. The study findings indicate that there is an urgent need to explore the pathogenesis of long COVID and develop effective interventions to reduce the risk of long COVID.
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Content ArticleBritain’s next public health crisis is already looming: Long Covid. The numbers are stark. According to the Office for National Statistics, 1.5 million people in the UK have long Covid, 281,000 of whom are so ill that their ability to undertake day-to-day activities has been limited “a lot”. Ravi Veriah Jacques knows first hand how debilitating Long Covid can be. He is only 23. Before Covid struck, Ravi had just graduated from Stanford University and was halfway through a master’s degree at Tsinghua University, Beijing, as a Schwarzman scholar. However, he has been seriously ill for a full year. Hisy main symptom has been an intense fatigue that has forced me to spend up to 16 hours a day in bed and, when I do get up, I can’t do any strenuous activity without my symptoms worsening. Long Covid has put my life almost completely on hold. Yet Ravi has received no effective medical treatment. He is being seen in London at University College hospital’s Long Covid clinic, where he has been prescribed antihistamines and given advice on how to manage his symptoms. Neither measure has made a dent on his fatigue. Ravi's experience is far from unique. None of the more than 80 specialist NHS Long Covid clinics can offer longhaulers effective treatments. But the clinics aren’t the primary issue. The fundamental problem is that we lack treatments because research isn’t progressing fast enough.
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Content Article
Covid-19: Long term brain injury (14 March 2022)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Blogs
SARS-CoV-2 infection can damage many organs other than the lungs. The most troubling is damage to the brain. A series of recent studies document long term brain-damage in as many as one quarter of all those infected regardless of the severity of the initial disease. Those numbers are daunting considering that an estimated 140 million Americans have been infected by SARS-CoV-2. Symptoms, such as brain fog, fatigue, depression and a host of other maladies, may be mild or incapacitating. Several studies warn that treatment of those with long term brain injury will strain the healthcare care system for years to come. Understanding the origin and treatment of Covid-19 related brain injury is a high priority for medical science. -
Content ArticleThis study in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health aimed to investigate physical activity patterns in people with Long Covid, and the relationship between physical activity and Long Covid symptoms. It also aimed to find out the type of physical activity that people with Long Covid were being recommended, and what they were actually doing. The authors found that 75% of participants reported Long Covid symptoms worsening after physical activity. They also found that many participants received contradictory advice on whether or not to exercise with Long Covid.
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Content ArticleEndurance athletes have been left using wheelchairs or barely able to walk. But the government acts like Covid is beaten, writes Rose George in this Guardian article.
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Content ArticleThis study in BMC Infectious Diseases aimed to determine whether there is an association between Covid-19 infection and acute appendicitis. The authors performed a single institution retrospective review of pre-procedure Covid-19 testing and indications for surgical intervention. They found a high prevalence of Covid-19 in both all testing and pre-procedure testing during the enrolment period and observed a high prevalence of acute appendicitis among patients identified to be Covid-positive during pre-procedure testing and without recognised symptoms of Covid-19.
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Content ArticleThis Swedish study in The BMJ aimed to quantify the risk of deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism and bleeding after Covid-19. The authors found that incidence rate ratios were significantly increased 70 days after covid-19 for deep vein thrombosis, 110 days for pulmonary embolism and 60 days for bleeding, when compared to the control period. The study demonstrates that Covid-19 is a risk factor for deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism and bleeding. Its results could impact recommendations on diagnostic and prophylactic strategies against venous thromboembolism after Covid-19.
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Content ArticleOnly 1 in 3 people were fully recovered from COVID-19 a year after they left hospital. Being female, having obesity or being on a ventilator were each linked with ongoing symptoms, months after people were discharged (Long-COVID). Nearly 1 million people in the UK have so far been admitted to hospital because of COVID-19. The long-term effects of the infection in this group are only just coming to light. Researchers explored the impact of being hospitalised for COVID-19 on people’s mental and physical health, and on their employment. They looked at characteristics such as age and sex to see which were associated with worse recovery. They also assessed whether inflammation in the blood may be a potential target for treatment. This study described, for the first time, four different patterns of COVID-19 recovery. It found, for example, that some people with long-COVID had higher levels of inflammation. The researchers say that targeting treatment to specific clinical problems, such as treating inflammation in people with higher levels of inflammation, are promising approaches to aid recovery.
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Content ArticleThis article in the Daily Mail looks at the link between mild Covid infection, heart disease and other circulatory issues. The article describes the experience of TV doctor Xand van Tulleken, who suffered from recurrent atrial fibrillation after catching Covid-19 in March 2020. It then looks at the cardiovascular symptoms being reported by people with Long Covid, and highlights different research studies around the world which are establishing a link between Covid infection and cardiovascular problems.
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Content ArticleLong Covid Support and Long Covid Kids surveyed people with Long Covid about their experience of being reinfected with Covid. Responses were received from 484 adults and 112 children and young people. The study found that reinfection worsens the symptoms of Long Covid in the majority those who are still symptomatic. Reinfection causes a recurrence of Long Covid in 60% of those who were in recovery or remission. 89% of respondents first got Long Covid after their first infection, 10% after their second infection and 1% after their third. Most adult respondents had been vaccinated before their second infection.
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Content ArticleThe TUC and Long Covid Support Employment Group are interested in the experiences of people with Long Covid. This survey aims to better understand how workers with Long Covid have been treated in the workplace and what support is needed. The survey is for people with Long Covid currently in and out of work. Long Covid is the term used to describe COVID-19 symptoms that extend beyond the initial infection. The survey will take around 15-20 minutes to complete.
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Content ArticleUnderstanding myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome—an elusive condition that often follows an infection and shares many similarities with Long Covid—could improve Long COVID19 research, argues a new Science Perspective.
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Content ArticleOn 25 March 2020, Hannah Davis was texting with two friends when she realized that she couldn’t understand one of their messages. In hindsight, that was the first sign that she had COVID-19. It was also her first experience with the phenomenon known as “brain fog,” and the moment when her old life contracted into her current one. She once worked in artificial intelligence and analysed complex systems without hesitation, but now “runs into a mental wall” when faced with tasks as simple as filling out forms. Her memory, once vivid, feels frayed and fleeting. Former mundanities—buying food, making meals, cleaning up—can be agonisingly difficult. For more than 900 days, while other long-COVID symptoms have waxed and waned, her brain fog has never really lifted.
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Content ArticleThere are rising reports of profound cognitive impairment on par with clinical dementia as a result of Long Covid. By researchers’ best estimates, more than 1 in 8 people with Covid-19 will have some array of the 200 odd symptoms reported in this disease for months to years. Long Covid is quickly emerging as the next public health challenge. What are these land mines left behind by the SARS-CoV-2 virus? Are you at risk for them to explode even if you never get very sick from Covid? A study released earlier this month suggests that people suffering from long COVID end up with reservoirs of active SARS-CoV-2 virus — documented in our lungs, brain, and GI tract — which produce ongoing levels of viral spike protein in the blood. A year after becoming infected, patients’ levels can sometimes remain as high as were found during early infection.
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Content ArticleThis is the report of an employment tribunal concerning claimant Terence Burke, who was employed as a caretaker for the charity Turning Point Scotland. The tribunal ruled that Mr Burke was a disabled person within the meaning of s6 of the Equality Act 2010, and therefore unfairly dismissed by Turning Point Scotland in August 2021. The tribunal found that Mr Burke was disabled as he was suffering from Long Covid. This is the first case of Long Covid being classed as a disability in an employment tribunal and the ruling is likely to have implications on future cases concerning employees with Long Covid.
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Covid-19 has posed a huge challenge to the delivery of safe care, both when infection rates were at their highest levels and in terms of its long-term impact on health and social care systems.[1] The pandemic has magnified existing patient safety issues, created new ones, and exposed safety gaps which require systemic responses. This month the World Health Organization (WHO) has published a new report, Implications of the Covid-19 pandemic for patient safety: A rapid review.[2] The review aims to create a greater understanding of the impact of the pandemic on patient safety, particularly in relation to diagnostic services, treatment and care management. In this blog, Patient Safety Learning, one of the international organisations who contributed to this review, provides an overview and reflections on some the key themes and issues raised in this review. -
Content ArticleGovernments in England, Scotland and Wales recently withdrew covid sick leave for NHS staff. These changes to sick pay provision for staff on Covid-related sick pay is hard to understand at a time when Covid-19 infections are going up exponentially and many NHS organisations are reporting increasing numbers of staff off sick. Evidence is emerging that your chances of on-going issues (Long Covid) following a covid infection increase with each re-infection. Given this you might expect that NHS organisations were ensuring their infection control guidelines guaranteed staff were fully protected against Covid-19. However, in many Trusts this does not appear to be the case. Throughout the pandemic many NHS organisations seem to have focused on following Government guidelines about PPE requirements and ignored their obligations under Health and Safety Legislation. This has resulted in on-going shortcomings in protecting staff at work. This is discussed by Professor Raymond Agius and colleagues in a BMJ blog.
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Content ArticlePatients often report various symptoms after recovery from acute COVID-19. Ballering et al. aimed to analyse the nature, prevalence, and severity of long-term symptoms related to COVID-19, while correcting for symptoms present before SARS-CoV-2 infection and controlling for the symptom dynamics in the population without infection. They found persistent symptoms in COVID-19-positive participants at 90–150 days after COVID-19 compared with before COVID-19 and compared with matched controls included chest pain, difficulties with breathing, pain when breathing, painful muscles, ageusia or anosmia, tingling extremities, lump in throat, feeling hot and cold alternately, heavy arms or legs, and general tiredness.
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Content Article
Infographic: Long Covid explained
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Good practice and useful resources
The science behind the symptoms of Long Covid are explained in this infographic from docdroid. -
Content Article
Covid Airborne Protection Alliance Latest News
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Coronavirus (COVID-19)
The Covid Airborne Protection Alliance – formerly the AGP Alliance – (Chaired by BAPEN's Dr Barry Jones) is calling on Governments and health services in all four nations of the UK to review and update its guidance regarding personal protective equipment (PPE) for all health and social care staff as a matter of urgency. Stay up to date with their latest news. -
Content ArticleSouth Wales pharmacist, Geraint Jones, contracted COVID-19 in April 2020. He shares an insight to his experiences over the last year after he was later diagnosed with Long Covid.
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Content ArticleThe Pharmaceutical Journal speaks to formerly fit and well pharmacists and technicians whose lives have been devastated by Long Covid.
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Content ArticlePersistent Covid-19 illness following an acute infection with SARS-CoV-2 can have both a physical and psychological impact. Pharmacists in community and primary care should be able to provide patients with appropriate advice and support to manage their symptoms.
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Content ArticleOn 23 March 2021, Long COVID Physio Chair and co-founder Darren Brown presented to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society at the “Long COVID - what it is and how to manage it” webinar. In this interactive session, you can hear first-hand from those who have experienced Long Covid as well as experts on this topic. The multi-disciplinary panel explains how you can recognise and support those who may be living with Long Covid.
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Content Article
Long Covid by Geraint Jones
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Patient recovery
Geraint Jones, a healthcare worker at a hospital in Wales, shares his experiences of Long Covid. Geraint tested positive for COVID-19 in April 2020, whilst working on the COVID-positive wards in a district general hospital. This long-lasting illness is still little understood, but new research is uncovering some of the recurring symptoms that many patients experience and suggesting better options for treatment for adults and children.
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