LONG Covid is the term used to explain the long-term effects of Covid-19 that are being discovered as people recover from the initial impact of the virus.
According to a review by the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR), it may actually be a number of different syndromes and researchers are now examining what exactly happens after someone has contracted coronavirus.
In the NIHR review, it was suggested that people suffering from long-term effects of Covid-19 may have different syndromes such as post-intensive care syndrome, post-viral fatigue syndrome, and long term covid syndrome.
Why is Long Covid significant?
Researchers looking at coronavirus treatments for the over-50s are now considering including younger people in trials as issues around Long Covid become clearer.
Principle is a nationwide clinical trial from the University of Oxford that is looking for medicines that can help people get better quickly and stop them needing to go to hospital.
As longer-term effects become clearer, it has emerged to the Principle team that it would be unlikely that a "perfect vaccine" would work for everyone, so there still needs to be treatments available for people who get the disease.
How long does Covid-19 usually last?
Figures from the UK Covid Symptom Study app - which has more than four million regular users - suggest that a significant number of people report having symptoms for a month and between 10% and 20% have reported further complications.
While studies are still ongoing, the assumption that people tend to recover from "mild" infections within two weeks and more "serious" ones within three weeks have been challenged recently.
According to World Health Organisation (WHO) guidance, people are still able to infect others after symptoms disappear so care should be taken for at least two weeks after people get better.
The continued research into Long Covid is important as establishing clear symptoms will enable healthcare professionals to provide ongoing support to people that have contracted Covid-19.
What are the recurring symptoms that characterise Long Covid?
Regardless of whether someone has been hospitalised with Covid-19 or not, there is a wide range of symptoms experienced by patients.
These include effects on:
- Respiratory systems
- The brain
- Cardiovascular system
- The heart
- Kidneys
- Gut
- Liver
- Skin
Symptoms are likely to range in intensity and duration and do not necessarily present in any particular order.
The authors of the NIHR review said that the lack of a definition for what people are experiencing with may impact their ability to have their “symptoms and experiences properly recognised and treated by healthcare services, which can, in turn, have a further psychological impact, especially for non-hospitalised patients who were never formally diagnosed.”
What possible treatments are there?
In the Principle trial, researchers are looking at two common antibiotics, azithromycin and doxycycline.
Azithromycin has been shown to interfere with the ability of Sars-CoV-2 (the virus that causes Covid-19), to bind to human cells, as well as interfering with its ability to replicate and spread in the body.
Computer modelling studies have suggested that doxycycline can work against the virus. It is a commonly available antibiotic and usually used to treat infections caused by bacteria and certain parasites.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here