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What is it?
Long covid (post-covid) occurs when people experience long-term effects from their COVID-19 infection. These conditions can last for weeks, months, and even longer.
Symptoms
Symptoms for long covid are wide-ranging and differ for people. While the symptoms are known to improve over time, it is shown that the symptoms have the ability to disappear and appear again. Here are some symptoms that people have commonly reported:
Who is at risk?
For people who have had a severe COVID-19 illness such as those who have been hospitalized or needed intensive care, long covid is more likely. Additionally, unvaccinated people have a high risk of developing long covid. But ultimately, anyone who has been infected with COVID-19 has a chance of developing long covid symptoms.
Other Health Conditions
In reports, it is shown that one in five adult COVID-19 survivors has a health condition related to their COVID-19 infection. Now, what are some of these conditions that people experience?
People have experienced multiorgan damage and autoimmune conditions. Some people have persistent kidney, liver, heart, and nervous system problems after COVID-19. Heart inflammation has been found in 60% of people who had COVID-19. Increased chances of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), which basically infects your autonomic nervous system, occur after becoming infected with COVID-19. Additionally, lung scarring and other lung and breathing problems are common after COVID-19.
Moreover, it is seen that people have an increased chance of getting diabetes. Because pancreatic cells have SARS-CoV-2 receptors, infection with COVID-19 may damage these cells, harming the production of insulin, and increasing the chances of getting diabetes.
The Struggle, Status, Insights
As of today, there is still no treatment specifically for long covid. Many long covid victims have been trying out different “treatments,” ranging from acupuncture to nerve-block injections and vitamin infusions. For many, research is going at a sluggish pace.
From a research and medical perspective, much ought to be found out. Researchers are still trying to figure out the cause of long covid. One theory is that body is harboring leftovers of the viruses in various places. To support this, the virus has been found in places such as the gut, and in stool and blood samples. Additionally, researchers are working on finding the efficacy of vaccines with long covid, identifying who is most at risk for long covid, the most frequent symptoms, and the frequency of long covid. A strict definition for long covid is also being sought; for now, researchers use the criteria of having at least one symptom for more than 12 weeks (3 months) after the acute infection. As a result of the ambiguous definition of long covid, healthcare providers use other criteria to diagnose someone with it.
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