Thread by @bopinion

More than a year into the pandemic, we’ve learned a tremendous amount about Covid-19.

But in terms of grasping the impact of lingering post-Covid Syndrome, or Long Covid, we’re just getting started bloom.bg/3vjaTRn

So far, research into Long Covid has suffered from various limitations, such as:

➡️Small sample sizes
➡️Truncated follow-up periods

Even so, the emerging picture is stark bloom.bg/3vjaTRn

A study in the U.K. estimates that 23.6% of females with Covid-19 and 20.7% of males continued to experience symptoms five weeks after they tested positive for the virus.

Nearly 10% had symptoms 12 weeks later bloom.bg/3vjaTRn

More than 117 million people around the world have been infected with Covid-19.

If at least one in 10 experience symptoms that persist for weeks or months after the virus has left their body, that’s a lot of disability, however temporary bloom.bg/3vjaTRn

The reported symptoms list includes:

😴Fatigue
🌬Breathlessness
🧠Brain fog
💪Muscle aches
🤢Stomach illness
💔Heart palpitations

Long Covid doesn’t care if you’re young or super fit or just had a mild case of the virus bloom.bg/3vjaTRn

At UCL Hospital, the post-Covid clinic is a team involving respiratory, cardiology and neurology specialists, as well as occupational therapists and psychologists.

Only about a third of their non-hospitalized patients with long Covid have recovered fully bloom.bg/3vjaTRn

The problem isn’t only the sheer number of Long Covid patients, but the fact there’s still much we don’t know about how to treat the complex condition.

The condition affects many different parts of the body, in many different ways bloom.bg/3vjaTRn

Promising treatments so far have included:

💊Steroids
💊Antihistamines
💊Vitamin D
💊Beta-blockers
💊A treatment for gout

Rest is a universal protocol, as exercise can lead to a relapse bloom.bg/3vjaTRn

There’s unscientific advice going around too. Gwyneth Paltrow suffered fatigue & brain fog post-Covid &, on the advice of a functional medicine practitioner -- not a doctor -- started:

Intuitive fasting
Keto & plant-based diet
Using an infrared sauna bloom.bg/3vjaTRn

Paltrow was so happy with the results that she wrote about it in her blog, but it set off alarm bells in the medical community.

“We wish her well, but...the solutions she’s recommending are [not what] we’d recommend in the NHS,” said @NHSEnglandNMD bloom.bg/3vjaTRn

Still, there are many unanswered questions:

❓What causes post-Covid fatigue?
❓What makes this fatigue last a long time?
❓Who’s to say special diet regimes might not help on the margins? bloom.bg/3vjaTRn

The good news is that Long Covid sufferers are getting attention, and there is some encouraging evidence that vaccines have helped people with their post-Covid symptoms, along with some serious theories on why that might be the case bloom.bg/3vjaTRn

There are some 70 Long Covid clinics around the U.K., and more than 80 post-Covid clinics in the U.S.

This is a feat if you consider how relatively new Covid is. It took more than 80 years to determine a diagnosis for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or ME/CFS bloom.bg/3vjaTRn

The costs of ignoring illness are high. ME/CFS sufferers, who share symptoms with Covid long haulers:

➡️Have greater health care needs
➡️Are more likely to be unemployed
➡️Require care from family members
➡️Are more likely to attempt suicide

bloom.bg/3vjaTRn

Sufferers are hoping that the interest in Covid’s after-effects will help shed new light on their own plight.

For now, though, Covid long-haulersr will have to continue to rely on support groups and their own reserves of patience bloom.bg/3vjaTRn