The Longtail of Coronavirus Can Prolong Suffering For Months
Last edited Sat Jul 11, 2020, 11:31 AM - Edit history (2)
"Long tail of coronavirus can prolong suffering for months," Agence France- Presse/AFP, 23 hrs ago.
They call themselves "long-haulers", "long-tailers", or simply survivors. Some have been sick almost as long as the new coronavirus is known to have existed. Six months after the virus began to scorch its way across the planet, it is becoming clear that COVID-19 causes far more symptoms than first suspected. Thousands of people of all ages are staying sick for weeks or even months.
British forensic psychiatrist Jenny Judge began an odyssey of illness in March with a fever, cough, headache and breathing problems. She has since experienced waves of other symptoms including a racing heart, scalding rashes and "COVID toes", which were itchy and ulcerated. At one point she was so delirious she heard her dogs talking, and was not particularly surprised. "Now I am going through a belly phase," she told AFP on day 111 of her ordeal.
More than 12 million COVID-19 cases have been recorded worldwide with more than 550,000 deaths. Some six million people are listed as "recovered". But these figures do not tell the full story.- 'They feel left out' - A study of 143 recovered hospital patients in Italy, published in the JAMA Network journal on Thursday, found that 87 percent were still suffering at least one symptom 60 days after falling ill. Fatigue and breathing difficulties were most common. This follows research published last week by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that found of 350 people surveyed, about 60 percent of inpatients and around a third of outpatients were not back to health 14-21 days after testing positive.
People leaving hospital may need ongoing care for organ damage, injuries sustained in invasive oxygen therapy or post-traumatic stress. But those who have coped with their illness at home often do not have an explanation for their continuing symptoms, and may face scepticism or outright disbelief from employers and doctors. "I think these people feel very left out and that nobody's looking after them," said Tim Spector, Professor of Genetic Epidemiology at King's College London, who is behind a large-scale symptoms-tracking project. "Some of them can have really debilitating fatigue." Some 3.8 million people in the UK have logged on to the app since it was launched in March, while it also has more than 300,000 users in the US and 186,000 in Sweden. Researchers think that up to one in 10 of them still have symptoms after 30 days and some remain unwell for months..
Read more, https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/long-tail-of-coronavirus-can-prolong-suffering-for-months/ar-BB16zEys
