By Kate Kelland
LONDON, Feb. 24 (Reuters) – Thousands of COVID-19 patients suffer severe, debilitating and persistent symptoms many months after their initial infection, with serious social, health and economic consequences, European health experts said on Thursday.
According to experts, a lead report from the World Health Organization led to the condition, often referred to as ‘long COVID’ or ‘post-COVID syndrome’, and one in ten COVID-19 patients is still ill 12 weeks after their acute infection . many suffer for much longer symptoms.
“It is a condition that can be extremely debilitating. Those who suffer from it describe a varying combination of overlapping symptoms … (including) chest and muscle pain, fatigue, shortness of breath … brain fog (and) many others , “said Martin McKee, a professor at the European Observatory for Health Systems and Policies who led the report.
Hans Kluge, the European Regional Director of the WHO, said COVID could have serious social, economic, health and occupational consequences.
“The burden is substantial and it is significant,” he said.
He appealed to health authorities to listen to patients’ problems, take them seriously and set up services to help them.
Increasing evidence from around the world points to thousands of people experiencing long COVID. The condition does not appear to be related to whether a patient has had a severe or mild infection.
In an initial report by the British Institute for Health Research last year, it was suggested that long-covid may not be one condition, but multiple syndromes that cause a rollercoaster of symptoms that affect body and mind.
Kluge noted that, as with any new disease, much is still unknown about COVID-19.
“We need to listen and … understand. The sufferers of post-COVID conditions need to be heard if we are to understand the long-term consequences and recovery of COVID-19,” he said. “This is a clear priority for the WHO (and) it should be for every health authority.” (Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva. Edited by Nick Macfie)
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