Covid-19 waves will come and go, but the legacy of long-Covid will be with us for some time to come. Fatigue, breathlessness, brain fog – we all know there are thousands of people in this country who are taking weeks and months to shake off the virus’s effects.
t is also clear that how ill you become with Covid-19 does not determine whether or not you get long-Covid.
As another rise in Covid-19 cases looms in Ireland with the circulation of the BA.4 and BA.5 variants, more of us will get a mild dose – but some will be left with symptoms for weeks and months.
The challenge of long-Covid is a major one for the health service and demand for help is increasing.
More and more is being learned about it, although there is still no consensus, even concerning the timeline for when it starts.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) set it at 12 weeks – a standard that has been adopted here. But the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in the US puts it at one month after infection.
Multi-disciplinary teams of hospital specialists are best placed to assess patients who may undergo a range of scans but show no abnormalities.
Here the HSE has €2.2m to roll out a range of post-acute and long-Covid clinics, some of which it says are already operational.
“They have been established in response to local need, and are leveraging existing resources and capacity,” a spokesperson said.
“The HSE is now working these sites to expand their resources, to ensure they can meet the requirements of the model of care and what is required within a local context.”
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Hospital sites have “commenced the process of recruitment of the personnel associated with each of the clinics”.
“These include consultants in the area of infectious diseases, respiratory medicine, neurology and additional multi-disciplinary staff to support the work of the clinics.”
Along with treatment must come more research. Infectious disease consultant in the Mater Hospital, Professor Jack Lambert, revealed last week that studies of 155 long-Covid patients showed they had a greater prevalence of psychological and psychiatric problems such as anxiety and depression.
Women also appear to be more affected than men, and this trend is also seen in conditions such as chronic fatigue syndrome, which can have cross-over symptoms similar to those experienced by people with long-Covid.
Other studies suggest vaccinated people may have reduced symptoms if they develop long-Covid. The condition also appears likely to peak in middle age.
Type 2 diabetes may be one of a number of medical conditions that can leave people at higher risk of long-Covid.
There is a suggestion that the Epstein-Barr virus, which can infect people at a young age and become dormant, may be reactivated by Covid-19. Long-Covid is an area of active investigation, but so far there are more questions than answers.
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