Every tenth person infected with coronavirus still has symptoms of the disease after eight weeks. The risk of such a prolonged course of illness, called “long COVID,” turns the lives of even young and healthy infected individuals into a kind of “Russian roulette” with an unpredictable outcome, according to a leading British immunologist.
A group of British health care workers who have developed a long and severe form of the disease and medical professionals described the course of the disease at a parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday. According to them, many continue to experience pain, constant fatigue, and severe nervous system damage long after the infection. Even for young and healthy people, infection with the virus can pose serious risks, they warn, cautioning against a “black and white” perception of COVID as either deadly or mild and short-lived.
While the majority of people get over the infection relatively easily, a significant minority – 5% to 10% – experience symptoms for several weeks after infection. The presence of such “long playing” symptoms is called “long COVID”. They can manifest themselves in a variety of ways, ranging from annoying to completely debilitating. They include shortness of breath, chronic fatigue, loss of smell and taste, and in extreme cases, organ damage. The number of offers should remain: In addition, infected individuals also mention the occurrence of diabetes, thrombosis, and diarrhea. There are even early signs of changes in the structure of the brain in some of those infected.
Dr. Natalie McDermott is a pediatrician who believes she contracted the coronavirus from a colleague. After the infection, she developed pain that made it difficult for her to walk. Doctors suspect she has a spinal cord injury. “Young people who think they are invincible should be more careful,” she says. “I am 38 years old, and I may not be able to walk without crutches. I may have to get around in a wheelchair,” MacDermott suggests. “Yes, you probably won’t die, but you may have chronic problems,” she adds, addressing the younger generation.
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Professor and doctor Nisreen Alwan from Southampton, who has recovered from “long” Covid, says that the number of patients like her could potentially be overwhelming. “If 10% of those infected are ill in this form, that could mean about 40,000 cases in just one UK in the last week,” she says. The UK Office for National Statistics has published the results of a pilot survey aimed at determining the number of people with “long” COVID, but was unable to provide an accurate estimate due to the high dropout rate in the survey. The preliminary assessment based on this survey indicates that one in ten infected persons will have a prolonged course of the disease. According to other studies, one in 20 patients continues to suffer from the virus, based on observations at nine weeks after infection, and one in 50 people may have symptoms for more than three months.
“We speak as if death is the only bad outcome of a disease,” says Dr. Alvan. But she also emphasizes that the coronavirus can leave previously healthy people disabled, affecting their ability to work and care for their families. “We don’t have a system to record these cases, and we can’t assess the damage,” she says.
In addition to the fact that the exact number of people infected with the long-lasting form is unknown, it was noted during the working group meeting that very little is known about the biological mechanisms of the prolonged course of the disease. “This is a chapter for medical textbooks that has not been written and needs to be written,” said immunologist Danny Altmann of Imperial College London. “This is really like ‘Russian roulette,'” the doctor added. “Even if you are not at risk and do not die […] you cannot know whether you will recover within a few weeks or end up on crutches or in a wheelchair,” he warns.