TL;DR
👉~14% of people who catch covid-19 end up with lasting symptoms: ~25 million people worldwide.
👉Could be big underestimate - less than 10% of infections detected - true figure could be nearer 250 million.
👉No universally agreed definition.
👉NIHR divide #LongCovid into 4 groups: those with after-effects of ventilation; those with organ damage caused by #SARSCoV2; those with post-viral fatigue syndrome; miscellaneous group that the authors call those with long-term covid syndrome.
👉One puzzling feature: those most prone to long covid aren't those most likely to get sick from the initial infection.
👉women 30% more likely to get it than men
👉35 to 69-year-olds are the age group most often affected (ONS)
👉WHO working to agree a clinical case definition.
👉Causes? 3 broad ideas: persistent viral infections; lasting tissue damage caused by the virus; and immune system changes.
👉There is evidence to support all 3 (Akiko Iwasaki, Yale School of Medicine)
👉Evidence that fragments of SARS-CoV-2 could linger for months.
👉Treatment: "It's really focused on treating the symptoms, because we don't know the cause" Melissa Heightman, UCL Hospitals
👉Aren't enough clinics or specialists. “We can't refer everyone to a long covid clinic, they'd just be inundated,” Kamlesh Khunti,University of Leicester
👉WHO working on separate definition for long covid in young people.
👉#Longcovidkids needs more consideration in UK gov plans, Layla Moran, LibDem MP
👉“Long tail of covid is real & will only get worse if the virus is allowed to let rip among the unvaccinated younger population”
👉To deal with long covid in children, “you have to be more serious about preventing children getting the infection in the first place” @Dr2NisreenAlwan
👉🏴15 specialist long-covid services for children.
A sudden onset of:
👉 OCD symptoms and/or severe eating restrictions
👉 Cognitive, behavioural, neurological symptoms (at least 2)
😢"It’s like my child woke up as a
completely different person!"😢
#PANS kids display a dramatic personality
change, some #OCD, tics or issues with
food, together with a number of other symptoms
usually following some kind of infection.