Things to Know about Long Covid
Allow me to discuss a key health concern affecting some patients who have recovered from the infection of the Coronavirus disease (Covid). This topic is known as Long Covid.
So what is Long Covid?
Long Covid is a set of conditions and symptoms that may persist weeks or
even months after having Covid infection.
Long Covid is a bit challenging to define due to its wide range and overlapping symptoms with other diseases.
Several scientists have identified three distinct Long Covid group conditions and they are:
1. Most people infected with with Delta and Alpha variant usually manifest nervous
system symptoms like headache, brain fog (forgetfulness) and easy fatigability. They also have a problem with concentration.
2. The second group of Long Covid sufferers have a cluster of respiratory system
symptoms. These symptoms include incessant cough, pleuritic chest pain, difficulty of breathing even on light activity due to severe lung damage. This is the largest group of patients with Long Covid and it is believed to be caused by the original Covid virus when most people were unvaccinated.
3. The third group includes patients with heart injury due to Covid that manifest
as palpitations and recurrent heart attack, muscle problem like weakness and myalgia, skin rashes and changes in patient’s hair, and acute kidney injury that may require temporary dialysis.
Based on recent findings, vaccination decreased the likelihood as well as the severity of Long Covid.
Experts say that other Long Covid symptoms are gastrointestinal complaint, including nausea,
vomiting, abdominal pain and diarrhea that persist even after patient have been declared recovered from Covid.
Experts say that the treatment for Long Covid
in general is supportive and mainly for symptomatic relief only.
So far, the experts say, there is no definitive treatment forLong Covid, but we can avoid it and minimize the symptom
severity through vaccination.