The U.S. government is launching a nationwide initiative to study COVID-19 patients suffering from symptoms months after recovery, commonly known as ‘COVID throwers’.
Click to expand
FOLLOWING
© Alex Brandon, AP
On this January 21, 2021, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks to reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room in the White House.
The country’s leading expert on infectious diseases has also revealed a scientific name for the new syndrome – Post Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC) – which further legitimizes the suffering population.
“(There are) many important questions that are now unanswered that we hope with this series of initiatives that we will eventually answer,” Fauci said.
Start the day smarter. Get all the news you need in your inbox every morning.
The announcement comes after a study published in the JAMA Network Open last week found that approximately 30% of COVID-19 patients reported persistent symptoms for as long as 9 months after illness.
These symptoms include fatigue, shortness of breath, sleep disorders, fever, gastrointestinal problems, anxiety and depression, and so-called ‘brain fog’.
“Sometimes these symptoms appear well after the time of infection or develop over time and can persist … for months, and can range from mild, irritating to actually quite uncomfortable,” Fauci said.
The National Institutes of Health expects to integrate data from existing projects on COVID-19 patients into the initiative. One such project is the COVID-19 Neuro Database Biobank (or the NeuroCOVID project), a database and biobank managed by the University of New York.
The NeuroCOVID project, announced Tuesday, asks institutions and individual clinicians to submit information on neurological symptoms, underlying medical conditions, disease course, complications and outcomes. They can also submit existing samples such as blood, tissue and cerebrospinal fluid to the project’s biobank.
“Since so many people became ill, it turned out that there were so many patients who had neurological conditions related to COVID,” said Dr. Sharon Meropol, program director of the NeuroCOVID project, said. “Some of them had new conditions, others had existing conditions that were aggravated.”
Everyone gets a mask: Biden administration delivers more than 25 million masks at health centers, food pantries
A third COVID vaccine on the way: One-dose J & J COVID-19 vaccine meets the criteria as safe and effective, the FDA report finds
The database accepts information about adults, children, pregnant women and their babies. Patient identities will be protected by their providers as only they can see personal information; the NeuroCOVID project can only see a generated, unidentifiable code referring to the patient.
At the outset of the pandemic, health experts speculated that neurological symptoms were caused by severe COVID-19 disease. But as time went on, more patients with mild or moderate illnesses began to show these symptoms, Dr. Barbara Karp, program director at the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, said.
“As we involve COVID long-term careers, the long-term consequences of COVID … many of them are the neurological domain,” she said.
According to Pravin George, a neurologist at the Neuro-Intensive Care Unit at Cleveland Clinic, brain fog, which includes memory problems, concentration problems and intense fatigue, is the most common symptom among long-term care workers.
One explanation for the symptoms may be that the immune system attacks normal cells in the body during infection, including brain cells, he said. It can also be caused by inflammation or low oxygen levels that are characteristic of the disease.
No one can know for sure until this population has been thoroughly studied, George said.
“We do not have the answers, but what is really important is to find out what is there and that is where a nationwide effort really plays an important role,” Karp said. “We hope in the long run that if we can identify the syndrome, we can develop ways to approach the treatment for it.”
Follow Adrianna Rodriguez on Twitter: @AdriannaUSAT.
Health and Patient Safety Coverage in USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare. The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input.
This article originally appeared in the USA TODAY: dr. Anthony Fauci wants to answer ‘very important questions’ about ‘COVID long-distance riders’ in a new nationwide initiative
Read more