Post by Nadica (She/Her) on Nov 25, 2024 3:48:07 GMT
At 400 million patients and counting, long COVID remains a mysterious affliction - published Nov 23, 2024
By Dan Horn
As many as 400 million people worldwide have developed long COVID since the COVID-19 pandemic began five years ago.
The physical and financial cost is staggering, according to a report published this year in the journal Nature Medicine: About $1 trillion a year, lost jobs, housing insecurity and serious medical conditions that include heart disease, diabetes and other life-changing chronic conditions.
Yet despite its reach and impact, long COVID remains a mystery to the scientists studying it and the millions still suffering with its symptoms.
"There's a lot we don't know about long COVID," said Dr. Grant Mussman, medical director of the Cincinnati Health Department. "We don't understand what leads to long COVID, besides COVID."
A long haul with long COVID:Why poor and middle income Americans are hit hardest
A previous COVID-19 infection often is the only connection one long COVID patient has to another. The symptoms and severity vary widely, from fatigue and shortness of breath, to debilitating conditions such as organ failure. Some recover in a few months. Others never fully recover and struggle for years with pain and medical problems that interfere with their ability to work and live as they did before COVID.
Diagnosing long COVID can be difficult because it impacts patients in so many different ways. There is no blood test, DNA test or single medical exam that can determine with certainty whether the cause of someone's health problems is long COVID or something else. Instead, doctors rely on exams that over time study patients' symptoms and compare their medical history before and after COVID.
"Long COVID is not one thing," said Dr. Richard Becker, the physician who leads the University of Cincinnati's Long COVID clinic. "People could have 20 different symptoms."
Theories abound about the cause of long COVID, but most researchers, including those involved in the Nature Medicine study, believe it's likely that multiple factors are in play. Those could include a person's genetic makeup, the severity of their initial COVID-19 infection, their body's immune response, preexisting medical conditions and past environmental exposures.
"Long COVID is a complex, multisystem disorder that affects nearly every organ system," researchers wrote in the study.
Some research also suggests poor and middle income people are more likely to develop long COVID and to suffer symptoms longer, possibly because lower income people tend to be less healthy and to have less access to insurance and quality medical care.
Becker said long COVID often goes undiagnosed because the symptoms can so easily be attributed to other causes. That's why diagnosing and treating long COVID may require time and several different physicians specializing in everything from cardiology to rheumatology. Even then, health problems may linger for years.
"I still see some of the patients I saw in March 2020," Becker said.
By Dan Horn
As many as 400 million people worldwide have developed long COVID since the COVID-19 pandemic began five years ago.
The physical and financial cost is staggering, according to a report published this year in the journal Nature Medicine: About $1 trillion a year, lost jobs, housing insecurity and serious medical conditions that include heart disease, diabetes and other life-changing chronic conditions.
Yet despite its reach and impact, long COVID remains a mystery to the scientists studying it and the millions still suffering with its symptoms.
"There's a lot we don't know about long COVID," said Dr. Grant Mussman, medical director of the Cincinnati Health Department. "We don't understand what leads to long COVID, besides COVID."
A long haul with long COVID:Why poor and middle income Americans are hit hardest
A previous COVID-19 infection often is the only connection one long COVID patient has to another. The symptoms and severity vary widely, from fatigue and shortness of breath, to debilitating conditions such as organ failure. Some recover in a few months. Others never fully recover and struggle for years with pain and medical problems that interfere with their ability to work and live as they did before COVID.
Diagnosing long COVID can be difficult because it impacts patients in so many different ways. There is no blood test, DNA test or single medical exam that can determine with certainty whether the cause of someone's health problems is long COVID or something else. Instead, doctors rely on exams that over time study patients' symptoms and compare their medical history before and after COVID.
"Long COVID is not one thing," said Dr. Richard Becker, the physician who leads the University of Cincinnati's Long COVID clinic. "People could have 20 different symptoms."
Theories abound about the cause of long COVID, but most researchers, including those involved in the Nature Medicine study, believe it's likely that multiple factors are in play. Those could include a person's genetic makeup, the severity of their initial COVID-19 infection, their body's immune response, preexisting medical conditions and past environmental exposures.
"Long COVID is a complex, multisystem disorder that affects nearly every organ system," researchers wrote in the study.
Some research also suggests poor and middle income people are more likely to develop long COVID and to suffer symptoms longer, possibly because lower income people tend to be less healthy and to have less access to insurance and quality medical care.
Becker said long COVID often goes undiagnosed because the symptoms can so easily be attributed to other causes. That's why diagnosing and treating long COVID may require time and several different physicians specializing in everything from cardiology to rheumatology. Even then, health problems may linger for years.
"I still see some of the patients I saw in March 2020," Becker said.