Many individuals who come through the acute phase of covid-19, struggle with recovery and continue to suffer symptoms that include brain fog, tiredness, cardiac and neurological issues. The symptoms are being termed as the Long Covid.
Talking to AFP, World Health Organization’s (WHO) lead on post covid conditions shared that it is time to start looking into and solving this mystery.
While everyone is focused on the distribution of the vaccines and the other variants of the virus that are proving to be more contagious, Janet Diaz, the Clinical Care Lead for the WHO’s Emergencies Programme is of the opinion that Long Covid needs urgent attention and unified approach to be dealt with.
“We still don’t fully understand what Long Covid is, there’s quite a bit to learn, but I am confident that the scientific community is really rallying around.”
Tellingly, Long Covid does not yet have a proper name. WHO is currently calls it post-covid condition, while other terms in circulation include post-acute covid syndrome and covid long haulers.
The global health organization is hosting its first global seminar on Long Covid on February 9. The event will bring scientists, experts and clinicians together to define the condition, give it a formal name and harmonize study methods.
“It’s a condition that needs further description, further understanding of how many are affected and further understanding of what is causing it, so we can better prevent, manage and treat it,” said Diaz.
She further added that British and other studies suggested potentially one in ten cases may have prolonged symptoms a month after getting infected, but there is no picture yet of how long those conditions might persist.
While the pandemic response priority remains preventing people from catching the virus and falling ill, treating coronavirus cases “must also now include care after the acute illness… until you get back to full health”, Diaz added.
At the 9 February seminar, scientists will present their latest findings, will be the first in a regular series.
“Right now, we probably have enough descriptive data to start to bring it all together,” said Diaz.
Furthermore besides agreeing on a definition and a name, the meeting will launch a standardized data collection methods for monitoring patients, and start opening doors towards clinical prevention and management.
