Shortness of breath is one of the major symptoms. Traditional pulmonary rehabilitation is difficult to implement on scale. We require a ‘highly individualised approach to help those experiencing #LongCOVID’ says @MMcNarry#LongCOVIDConference 2/6
Respiratory muscle training helps to strengthen the breathing muscles, worked for other types of respiratory conditions. @MMcNarry carried out study, where participants used a small handheld breathing device. This tracked every breath & gave participants instant feedback 3/6
After 8 weeks, there was a very large decrease in breathlessness in the intervention group compared to the control group physoc.org/news_article/h… 4/6
Intervention group says that there were improvements every week. They reported being able to do activities that they couldn’t do before, some reported being able to go to work again, and some reported a decrease in anxiety - @MMcNarry#LongCOVIDConference 5/6
This low cost, home-based rehabilitation programme could be scaled up and implemented in collaboration with healthcare providers to assess its feasibility in a real-world setting - @MMcNarry presenting at #LongCOVIDConference 6/6
@hugh_montgomery “What's the relationship between asthma and #LongCovid? @ollieosul – “It seems ppl with asthma in the military fared similar to those w/o asthma @Breathe_to_win “we were preparing for a devastating effect on asthma patients, but that wasn’t borne out”
Q: “If you were to get #COVID, would you rest & wait or try to improve your outcome through exercise” @hugh_montgomery
A: @Breathe_to_win “Data into other infections suggests light exercise if able is beneficial. Rest for 48h and then if symptoms allow – light exercise.
In Brazil, response to chikungunya offers a comparable: "What made chikungunya crippling to the health system is that a small % of people who get it go on to have chronic symptoms which then have a huge impact on people and livelihood." - Prof @Daltmann10 1/4 #LongCOVIDConference
Awareness and knowledge are changing through the pandemic. We’re building better evidence as time has gone.
A #LongCOVID biosignature offers a diagnostic test to help us understand what’s gone wrong and where to go next. 2/4 #LongCOVIDConference
Omicron is significantly different form previous variants – we don’t know how it’ll affect #longCOVID and what the future holds. 3/4 #LondCOVIDConference
‘Long COVID is an uncharted pathophysiology’ We’re still none the wiser in decoding the unknowns. Is long COVID a story of months, years or lifetime?
Prof Danny Altmann @Daltmann10 speaking at the #LongCOVIDConference 1/5
If 10-20% COVID19 infections lead to #LongCOVID. We already face a legacy of 20-240 million long term cases to manage globally 2/5 #LongCOVIDConference
A lot of the research effort at the beginning was purely observational and not interventional. Now we need to manage patients well and offer therapeutics. 3/5 #LongCOVIDConference
#LongCOVID can trigger high level of inflammation and consequent cause damage in the brain and other organs, or blood clotting, leading to a "perpetual and viscous cycle" of chronic symptoms. 2/5 #LongCOVIDConference
There is no single impact either. Examples of patients scans show inflammation, ischemic lesions, haemorrhagic transformation, and microhemorrhages.
“So you can see any pattern of involvement in the brain”- says Dr Paul Edison @ImperialBRC 3/5 #LongCOVIDConference
In the initial reporting, there was a large focus on death and survival. But "LongCOVID does not paint a black and white picture," says @Dr2NisreenAlwan. The grey area of chronic post-viral illness is missing from the narrative. 2/7 #LongCOVIDConference
Even now, #LongCOVID is unacknowledged by UK policy makers and is missing from health policy discussions, despite 1.3 million people suffering from the condition. (data from ONS survey) 3/7 #LongCOVIDConference