According to a Yahoo News report, the World Health Organization has warned about ‘long covid’ as cases surge and new variants keep appearing.
Stress on Long COVID
The World Health Organization called Tuesday for greater research, recognition, and rehabilitation for Long Covid sufferers as it brought experts together to share insights into the little-understood condition.
Understanding Post COVID Conditions
The WHO held the first in a planned series of seminars aimed at expanding understanding of post-Covid conditions, which heard not only from scientists and doctors but also from sufferers themselves
Little is known about why some people, after coming through the acute phase of Covid-19, struggle to recover and suffer ongoing symptoms including tiredness and brain fog as well as cardiac and neurological disorders.
Studies suggest that potentially one in 10 cases may have prolonged symptoms one month after infection — meaning millions may be suffering from an ongoing illness.
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that with attention turning in the coronavirus pandemic towards vaccination campaigns, “Long Covid should not fall through the cracks“.
Long COVID Impact Needs To Be Studied
He said the impact of Long Covid on society and the economy was starting to become clear, and for those reasons, “people start to listen” beyond the medical community.
Though the level of research is growing, it is “still not enough“, he said.
Long COVID the Next Pandemic
British doctor Gail Carson, from the International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infection Consortium, warned that “Long Covid could become the pandemic on the pandemic“.
Presenting findings from a post-Covid support forum, she raised the plight of under-the-radar sufferers.
Impact of Long COVID
Even for many who never had to be hospitalized with the virus, their condition “has been life-changing”.
“People are losing jobs, they’re losing relationships. There’s a real urgency to try and understand this,” she said.
Carson said that Long Covid in children was “even less well recognized or counted” than it is in adults.
She said it was “staggering” that only 45 out of more than 5,000 funded Covid-19 projects were looking at Long Covid.
Need Compassion To Survive This
Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead on Covid-19, said the organization was continuing to learn about this aspect of the pandemic.
“We know that much more work needs to be done,” she said.
“We need to show compassion with each other but we also need to be persistent in getting to the answers.“
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Source: Yahoo News
