WHAT IS LONG COVID? THREE QUARTERS OF PEOPLE HOSPITALISED SUFFER SYMPTOMS FOR THREE MONTHS OR MORE

The Independent 20 August 2020 - by Sophie Gallagher

© Provided by The Independent

At the start of 2020, Covid-19 was still an unknown illness to most of the world - now there have been 22.4m confirmed cases of coronavirus (320,000 in the UK alone) and a global death toll nearing 800,000.

Much is still not known about the long-term impacts of the virus - in February the government believed it was similar to known respiratory illnesses, like the flu, which is why they adopted a well-tested flu pandemic model. Now it is clear that coronavirus operates differently.

On Wednesday, Dr Hillary said on Good Morning Britain: “We’ve known for some time that this isn’t just a respiratory disease at all. It’s an inflammatory disease which particularly affects the blood vessels, the blood vessels in the heart, the kidneys, the liver, and elsewhere.”

Another aspect of the virus which is becoming more well-documented as we approach our ninth month living with it, is its duration.

A study released on 20 August found nearly three quarters of coronavirus patients admitted to hospital suffer ongoing symptoms three months later - many were struggling so much with the long-term impact they were unable to carry out daily tasks such as washing, dressing or going back to work, the study found.

So what is long-Covid and why does it happen to some patients and not others?

What is long-Covid?

The term long-Covid (also known as long-haul or long-tail) is not an official medical term. It is used by people suffering symptoms of the virus for longer than the official WHO-endorsed two week period, which is meant to be long enough for the virus to come and go.

Sufferers report a huge spectrum of problems beyond the three NHS-approved symptoms (persistent cough, fever and loss of taste or smell). These include fatigue, breathlessness, muscle aches, joint pain, 'brain fog,' memory loss, lack of concentration, and depression. It is not thought that people are infectious for the long period, but just suffer long-term effects.

Jennifer Forbes 41, from Cornwall got ill with Covid-19 in mid-March. She told The Independent, despite having no underlying conditions, she did not expect to get back to her former fitness for six months. “There is some slight change over the last few weeks, but it feels very slow, and still backwards and forwards,” she says. “I kept saying I was better, only to slip back again”.

Although the term is still colloquial rather than universally medically-approved – several celebrities including actors Alyssa Milano and Emma Samms have shared experience of issues like hair loss – there is increasing scientific evidence to support the idea of a long illness.

On 20 August, a study published by Southmead hospital in Bristol found that a total of 81 patients out of 110 discharged from the hospital were still experiencing Covid-19 symptoms, including breathlessness, excessive fatigue and muscle aches, after 12 weeks.

Separate data from the Covid Symptom Study app, being run by Kings College, suggests a “significant number” of people report symptoms for a month. The app, which has been downloaded more than 3,000,000 times, found that one in every 20 people experience long-term symptoms.

Another study, developed by health app ZOE and endorsed by NHS Wales and NHS Scotland, found one in 10 are ill for more than three weeks and some may suffer for months.

The same pattern has been seen elsewhere in the world. Writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, a team of researchers from Italy reported that nearly nine in 10 patients (87 per cent) discharged from a hospital in Rome were still experiencing at least one symptom 60 days after onset.

They found that 13 per cent of the 143 people were completely free of any symptoms, while 32 per cent had one or two symptoms, and 55 per cent had three or more.

And it's not just sufferers reporting it; a third of doctors have treated patients with long term covid-19 symptoms, including chronic fatigue and anosmia, a survey conducted by the British Medical Association (BMA) found.

The emergence of these official figures has led to these long-term sufferers coming together and forming support networks, such as the Facebook group “1 in 20” (a name inspired by the findings of the King’s survey).