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An interesting article on Covid long-haulers appeared in our local newspaper - the Courier Mail in Brisbane. Unfortunately it is behind a paywall - but a precis follows.
Start of precis:
Gary Macpherson could pull a golf cart around 18 holes without effort. He’d climb the six flights of stairs to his rooftop garden in inner-Brisbane’s Newstead, no puffing required. He’d eat and drink what he liked.
That was before he keeled over in the emergency department of the Royal Brisbane Hospital on March 30 last year with Covid. He spent six weeks in intensive care, most of that in an induced coma.
He survived, and at 62, now a Long COVID sufferer. He went through the painful rehab for his wasted muscles. He slept for most of the day in the first months back home, returning to work in September, and even then only in the mornings.
It’s been almost a year now and exertion leaves him short of breath. His kidney function has not returned to its pre-COVID healthy condition. Macpherson’s kidney function test score used to be about 80 per cent (average for his age); today it’s at a concerning 40.
Some recover after a month; others have lived with their symptoms for more than a year. It’s feared permanent damage may be done. Scientists are growing increasingly alarmed about just what is going on – silently, often undetected – in the heart, brain, kidneys and lungs of former COVID-19 patients.
Doctors are warning that patients who have survived COVID-19 may be left with longer-term health problems. Post-viral illness is not new; people can take weeks to recover from influenza and many who suffer the once-maligned chronic fatigue syndrome report its onset after battling a virus. But the numbers of those afflicted by Long COVID are huge. Some doctors think it could be “the pandemic on the pandemic”.
Dr Fauci, estimates more than 10% of COVID patients will develop what is also called post-acute COVID syndrome, while Professor Danny Altmann, from Imperial College London, says it could be as high as 20 per cent. The number of COVID cases globally is 110 million, so at 10 per cent, that’s 11 million people. Already, post-COVID clinics are being established in hard-hit cities.
It’s not only those who were severely ill, like Macpherson, who suffer this ongoing syndrome. Some hospitals and clinics report the majority of those unable to fully recover from their brush with the SARS-CoV-2 virus had mild symptoms that did not require hospitalisation.
It’s not only older people who battle to recover. Many young people are reporting far worse ongoing symptoms than the sniffle and headache they had with the virus. Social media pages set up by long haulers are filled with the stories of once active, fit, young people now laid up in bed or unable to work because they can’t think clearly. A study of young, low-risk patients in the UK found that 66 per cent had impairments in one or more organs four months after their initial infection. About 15% of Ohio State University’s college athletes who had COVID-19 now have myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle.
Answers are being sought. But, as we all know, COVID-19 threw the medical world into “uncharted territory”. Long COVID, with its multifaceted, hard-to-define nature, could prove even more difficult for science to navigate.
End Precis.
Statistics from Scotland show the Oxford vaccine, even after one shot, is after 35 days 75% effective in preventing Covid, but 95% in preventing hospitalizations. If that extra 20% that get it, but do not go to hospital, have the same percentage of long-haulers as those not vaccinated, even with the vaccine, we could be in for a serious long term health issue. I think more research is required.
Thanks
Bill
An interesting article on Covid long-haulers appeared in our local newspaper - the Courier Mail in Brisbane. Unfortunately it is behind a paywall - but a precis follows.
Start of precis:
Gary Macpherson could pull a golf cart around 18 holes without effort. He’d climb the six flights of stairs to his rooftop garden in inner-Brisbane’s Newstead, no puffing required. He’d eat and drink what he liked.
That was before he keeled over in the emergency department of the Royal Brisbane Hospital on March 30 last year with Covid. He spent six weeks in intensive care, most of that in an induced coma.
He survived, and at 62, now a Long COVID sufferer. He went through the painful rehab for his wasted muscles. He slept for most of the day in the first months back home, returning to work in September, and even then only in the mornings.
It’s been almost a year now and exertion leaves him short of breath. His kidney function has not returned to its pre-COVID healthy condition. Macpherson’s kidney function test score used to be about 80 per cent (average for his age); today it’s at a concerning 40.
Some recover after a month; others have lived with their symptoms for more than a year. It’s feared permanent damage may be done. Scientists are growing increasingly alarmed about just what is going on – silently, often undetected – in the heart, brain, kidneys and lungs of former COVID-19 patients.
Doctors are warning that patients who have survived COVID-19 may be left with longer-term health problems. Post-viral illness is not new; people can take weeks to recover from influenza and many who suffer the once-maligned chronic fatigue syndrome report its onset after battling a virus. But the numbers of those afflicted by Long COVID are huge. Some doctors think it could be “the pandemic on the pandemic”.
Dr Fauci, estimates more than 10% of COVID patients will develop what is also called post-acute COVID syndrome, while Professor Danny Altmann, from Imperial College London, says it could be as high as 20 per cent. The number of COVID cases globally is 110 million, so at 10 per cent, that’s 11 million people. Already, post-COVID clinics are being established in hard-hit cities.
It’s not only those who were severely ill, like Macpherson, who suffer this ongoing syndrome. Some hospitals and clinics report the majority of those unable to fully recover from their brush with the SARS-CoV-2 virus had mild symptoms that did not require hospitalisation.
It’s not only older people who battle to recover. Many young people are reporting far worse ongoing symptoms than the sniffle and headache they had with the virus. Social media pages set up by long haulers are filled with the stories of once active, fit, young people now laid up in bed or unable to work because they can’t think clearly. A study of young, low-risk patients in the UK found that 66 per cent had impairments in one or more organs four months after their initial infection. About 15% of Ohio State University’s college athletes who had COVID-19 now have myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle.
Answers are being sought. But, as we all know, COVID-19 threw the medical world into “uncharted territory”. Long COVID, with its multifaceted, hard-to-define nature, could prove even more difficult for science to navigate.
End Precis.
Statistics from Scotland show the Oxford vaccine, even after one shot, is after 35 days 75% effective in preventing Covid, but 95% in preventing hospitalizations. If that extra 20% that get it, but do not go to hospital, have the same percentage of long-haulers as those not vaccinated, even with the vaccine, we could be in for a serious long term health issue. I think more research is required.
Thanks
Bill