Latest news with #LongCovid
Time of India
2 days ago
- Health
- Time of India
Did the pandemic age our brains? New study reveals ‘shocking' truth
We've all been there. Tired, drained from our daily routines, which hardly ever left a dent in our energy levels before. What do we mean by 'before'? It's BC, but with rather a modern twist – Before COVID. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Many of us have casually attributed this exhaustion and lethargy to the aftereffects of 'Long Covid', but this time we have solid proof. A new study from the UK suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic may have aged our brains faster, even for people who never got sick from the virus. Researchers found signs of premature brain aging in people's brain scans during the pandemic years of 2021 and 2022. Interestingly, this change may be linked more to the overall stress and lifestyle disruptions of the pandemic than to the virus itself. The findings raise important questions about how events like global crises can affect our mental and neurological health. What does the study say A new study published in suggests that during the height of the pandemic in 2021 and 2022, people's brains showed signs of premature aging, such as shrinkage in gray matter, regardless of whether they were infected with the virus. The findings come from a large-scale analysis of brain scans in the UK, offering some of the clearest evidence yet that the pandemic's psychological and social toll affected neurological health. The research, led by Ali-Reza Mohammadi-Nejad, a neuroimaging expert at the University of Nottingham, used data from the UK Biobank, a health resource that has been tracking brain scans and health outcomes from over 500,000 volunteers since 2006. Signs of aging without any illness Analyzing brain scans from nearly 1,000 individuals, researchers found that the average person showed signs of accelerated brain aging, equivalent to about 5.5 months of extra aging. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The changes were more pronounced in men and individuals from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. 'These findings highlight that brain health is not shaped solely by illness, but also by broader life experiences,' Mohammadi-Nejad said to NBC News in an email interview. 'The cumulative stress of the pandemic period itself appears to have left a mark on our brains, even in the absence of COVID-19 infection.' Brain shrinkage is a normal part of aging, particularly in the gray matter, which plays a critical role in memory, decision-making, and emotional regulation. However, accelerated loss in this area can raise the risk of future cognitive issues, including memory problems or impaired judgment. How the study was conducted To understand whether the pandemic had any measurable impact on brain structure, researchers compared two groups: 564 participants who received both of their brain scans before the pandemic. 432 participants who had one scan before and another after the pandemic began. By developing a model of what normal aging looks like using pre-pandemic data from more than 15,000 people, researchers were able to measure how much additional aging had occurred during the pandemic years. The second group, whose follow-up scans took place mostly in 2021 and 2022, showed significantly more aging in brain structure compared to the control group. The aftereffects of infection For individuals who had tested positive for COVID-19, researchers observed additional deficits in cognitive abilities, including slower processing speeds and reduced mental flexibility. These findings align with earlier research pointing to neurological effects of the virus itself. 'The most intriguing finding in this study is that only those who were infected with SARS-CoV-2 showed any cognitive deficits, despite structural aging,' said Dr. Jacqueline Becker (to NBC News), a clinical neuropsychologist and assistant professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. 'This speaks to the effects of the virus itself, which may help explain lingering syndromes such as long COVID.' However, it remains unclear whether those who experienced brain structure changes without infection will eventually show similar cognitive symptoms. Brain aging in teens and young adults The findings echo earlier research from the University of Washington, which reported in 2024 that teenagers' brains also appeared to age faster during the pandemic. That study found that boys' brains aged 1.4 years, while girls' brains aged 4.2 years, likely due to increased stress and isolation. Other studies have also found that environmental stressors, such as isolation in remote areas like Antarctica, can lead to brain shrinkage, suggesting a broader connection between lifestyle factors and brain health. Experts' take While the study offers compelling evidence, experts caution that it remains unclear whether these changes will have long-term effects. 'This is still a hypothesis,' said Dr. Adam Brickman, professor of neuropsychology at Columbia University, who was not involved in the study. 'We don't know yet whether these effects are reversible or if they will persist over time.' Still, Brickman and others agree that people can take proactive steps to support their brain health. Habits like regular physical activity, adequate sleep, social engagement, and managing stress have been shown to support healthy brain aging. 'We know exercise is good for the brain,' Brickman added. 'So is keeping blood pressure in check and maintaining strong social connections.' Optimal blood pressure helps our brains age slower: Study
STV News
5 days ago
- Business
- STV News
Queensferry Crossing: Ballot opens to public for guided tour inside iconic bridge
Members of the public will be able to ballot for an exclusive guided tour inside the Queensferry Crossing. In September, as part of Doors Open Day, 180 visitors will get to see the interior of the £1.3bn bridge, led by Transport Scotland's operating company BEAR Scotland. The winners will be offered a unique glimpse at the structure's inner workings, with ten lucky winners taken up the highest tower to take in views over the Forth of Firth. It will be the first event of its kind on the UK's tallest bridge, which opened in 2017. While there will be no charge for the tours, donations to charity will be welcomed. All money raised will go to BEAR Scotland's national charity partner Chest, Heart & Stroke Scotland. STV News Nick Forbes, Bear Scotland's bridge manager, said: 'We're really excited to offer members of the public the chance to see Queensferry Crossing for the first time. 'Over 75,000 use the bridge every day, but very few people get to come and see inside the bridge, how it operates, and the job we do to maintain the structure. 'People will come onto the abutment and see main elements including the maintenance structure and various components – bearings, expansion joints, cable stays. There will be guides to explain different aspects and the real workings of the bridge. 'This is one of the best views of the Forth, no doubt about it – nearly 210 metres up. Visitors are offered raffle tickets for a trip up here themselves. 'It's a unique experience to get inside here – apart from the people who work here, very few members of the public get the chance to get inside the structure. 'Part of it is to showcase what we do – we're passionate about maintaining a fantastic structure, and raising money for a fantastic charity as well.' STV News The towers of the Queensferry Crossing are 207 metres (679 feet) high above high tide, making the Queensferry Crossing the tallest bridge in the UK. The towers are also higher than the Forth Road Bridge, which is 156 metres high. Anne Magarin, Chest, Heart and Stroke Scotland's corporate fundraising manager, got the chance to climb the bridge's North Tower. 'My favourite part has been overcoming my fear of heights to be on top – but the views are incredible! It makes it worth it going up there.' The charity provides vital support services to people and their families who are living with the effects of a chest, heart or stroke condition and Long Covid. STV News Around one million in Scotland are living with such conditions – an estimated one in five across the country. Anne added: 'We're absolutely delighted to be part of this to raise money for the cause. It's an absolute privilege. 'One call to our advice line costs £12.50. The more money we raise, the more calls we can cover. It also gives us publicity, which is important – people know they can get in touch. 'On the day, people can come here, get their raffle tickets, go on the tours and hopefully be one of the lucky ones to go up to the North Tower.' Guided tours will depart every 20 minutes on September 27 from the bridge office in South Queensferry. Tours will last 90 minutes, visiting parts of the Queensferry Crossing normally closed to the public, including the interior of the box girder deck and the central reservation where the bridge's cable stays are anchored. A total of 180 places will be available, allocated via a random ballot which will go live later in July. Members of the public are encouraged to follow @setrunkroads and @theforthbridges on X to be first in line when the ballot opens. Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
Scotsman
17-07-2025
- Politics
- Scotsman
Time to halt legal gravy train
Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk MP John Lamont. John Lamont MP, my Westminster colleague, has come in for some predictable criticism because he signed an early day motion which called for the implementation of 'a comprehensive national strategy to identify, detain, and deport' all illegal immigrants. Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Up popped the usual suspects, like Green MSP Ross Greer, parroting stuff about immigrants filling vacancies in the NHS or care sector, conveniently overlooking the fact there aren't enough homes for people living here now, that they can't get GP appointments or find an NHS dentist. Such vacancies contrast with the high number of inactive working age people, over a fifth of the labour force, and a rise of 500,000 on pre-pandemic levels. The UK is the only G7 country showing such an increase, and the leap in sickness benefit claims isn't all down to Long Covid. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad At the heart of the problem is an attitude that UK law doesn't matter, and human rights lawyers are only too keen to drain public resources by using the courts to block deportations on the spurious grounds that even sending back violent criminals is a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights. By its nature illegal immigration is hard to measure, but it's thought there are around a million people here with no right of residence. Of the 166,000 people whose asylum applications were refused in 2010-23, 84,000 were still here this time last year, and now 24,000 Aghan refugees must be accommodated because of a staggering security blunder, it's time the legal gravy train slowing down deportations was halted. Sue Webber is a Scottish Conservative MSP for Lothian
Otago Daily Times
13-07-2025
- Health
- Otago Daily Times
After a drawn-out battle, triumph beckons
The United Kingdom finds itself, once again, in the uncomfortably sweaty embrace of a heatwave. Edinburgh, a city built for haar, drizzle and existential melancholy, now shimmers with the heat. The grey stones of Leith have acquired a new hue in the golden sunshine. Pale Edinburgers have shed their woolly layers and have emerged, blinking, into the sunlight. I have no doubt the Meadows is currently a patchwork of charred sausages and sunburned students lazing out on the grass. Alas, I do not have the time to ascertain this myself. Instead of frolicking by the seaside or lying stretched out under a tree in Pilrig Park, I am trapped inside the cool quiet of my room, hunched over my desk, typing away furiously on my battered laptop. I am not deranged; I am a university student once again, making a final attempt to finish off a master's thesis I abandoned four years ago. Four years ago I was desperately depressed, anxiety-ridden, and seriously ill with ME/CFS and Long Covid. I was in the final stretch of my second master's degree — this one in global and imperial history — at the University of Oxford. The expectation was clear: to produce a well-researched and original thesis of 15,000 words. I was decidedly not capable of this. I was barely capable of showering or feeding myself. I was, of course, not merely a victim of my circumstances. I certainly could have been a better student; I could have applied myself more, drunk less, spent more time in the library instead of bars. But my father had just suffered his first heart attack — the second would end his life, two years later — and I was far from home, unable to return to New Zealand because of brutal Covid-19 border restrictions. Add to this my family's Luddite tendencies (I went several days without receiving news of my dad's health status), and you can perhaps understand why I wasn't best placed to meet the demands of an Oxford thesis. I can understand why some readers might view my struggles at Oxford as indulgent, ungrateful or pedantic. After all, I was awarded the immense privilege of a Rhodes Scholarship, an opportunity sought after by many but afforded to few. I am deeply aware of how fortunate I am. I could never have afforded to study overseas, let alone at a university as prestigious as Oxford. But those who are quick to judge often overlook — or choose not to understand — that gratitude and suffering can coexist. I have struggled with chronic depression for the better part of my life. When I arrived in Oxford, I was also grappling with CPTSD following the death of my brother by suicide only a few years earlier. I was also physically unwell with ME/CFS, battling thick, weighty fatigue. I could barely stay awake in lectures, and my brain fog made it nigh-impossible to form coherent sentences, let alone write postgraduate essays. My gratitude for the opportunity was — and still is — genuine, but it doesn't negate the deep and debilitating reality I was living through. After withdrawing from my studies, I felt a complex mix of relief, confusion and freedom. Most of all, I felt like an abject failure. Up until that point, my sense of self-worth had been almost entirely dictated by my academic and professional successes. And yet here I was, giving up on my Oxford dreams. I was a flop, a Rhodes Scholar with nothing to show for it but a glut of doctor's notes, joint pain and an unfinished thesis. In the intervening years I returned to working on the "other side" of academia, in administration, event-planning and communications. I rediscovered how much I enjoyed science communications. Translating complex research into accessible language, telling the human stories behind the data, and building bridges between disciplines has felt like a fresh alternative to the solitary grind of academia. At times it's been somewhat awkward, having to explain my incomplete degree and the gaps in my CV. But I've also learned to be a bit kinder to myself. I have learned that rest is not laziness, that asking for help is not a sign of weakness, and that my resumé does not determine my self-worth. I'm 30 now, and I've finally learned that I cannot bully my mind or body into health. But now, to quote the immortal words of The Human League, I'm coming back — back to my studies, back to Oxford, back to that dratted thesis that has haunted me for so many years. The University of Oxford, Rhodes House, and my wonderful college (Trinity) have graciously allowed me to return to my studies, and for this, I am deeply grateful. In a nutshell, my thesis is an intellectual history of Sir Frederic Truby King (1858-1938). King, a prominent New Zealand doctor, mental health reformer, and public health campaigner, is primarily remembered for his pioneering work in infant and maternal welfare with the Plunket Society. I am exploring King's life and legacy, focusing on his time as medical superintendent at Seacliff Asylum, where he developed ideas about moral treatment, environmental determinism and discipline in mental healthcare. In 2019, I wrote a column mildly questioning the sainthood of Captain Cook, arguing (hardly originally, I might add) that his voyages, whilst remarkable, also helped lay the foundations of a violent colonial order. A few days later, Emeritus Professor Erik Olssen published a rebuttal, dismissing my claims as "specious" and suggesting that I would surely fail my studies at Oxford. (Spoiler: I did drop out shortly after — but not, alas, for the reasons he thought.) The funniest thing about returning to my studies is that I am now poring over Olssen's (admittedly excellent) work on Truby King and the Plunket Society. The irony isn't lost on me. Academia has a long memory, but it also circles back in strange ways. The professor who once prophesied my failure now resides in my footnotes. The best thing about returning to my academic studies however has been the support of my supervisor. It is a somewhat revelatory experience to realise that a supervisor can actually be a wonderful mentor. My supervisor is not only brilliant but also kind, offering generous, thoughtful feedback and taking my disability support needs seriously. I'm now only two weeks away from my submission date, and the pressure is weighing on me once again. But I feel (relatively) calm and steady. I know that just pressing "submit" will be a personal triumph, even if I receive an abysmal grade. Just having got it done will be enough. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some footnotes to tidy up, and then I might go for a walk in the park. — Jean Balchin is an ODT columnist who has started a new life in Edinburgh.
The Wire
12-07-2025
- Health
- The Wire
With Limited Research and Understanding, Doctors Struggle to Treat Long Covid Patients
Banjot Kaur 2 minutes ago Several Long Covid patients say their problems have been ignored completely by clinicians. But even sympathetic doctors say the path forward is unclear. here. New Delhi: As we mark five years of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, 'Long Covid' remains the most challenging issue to deal with. Though our understanding of the Sars-Cov-2 virus has evolved quite a bit by this time, the phenomenon of Long Covid remains an enigma, by and large. Dr Ameet Dravid is an infectious diseases expert who practices in Pune. He has been treating Long Covid patients ever since the first wave of the pandemic started in 2020. Dr Dhruva Chaudhry is the head of the pulmonary and critical care department at Pt BDS Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS), Rohtak. Like Dravid, he, too, has been working with Long Covid patients. Working in two different parts of India, unknown to and independent of each other, both are grappling with one common question: Has Sars-Cov-2 fundamentally changed anything in our bodies, especially in our immune systems? Speaking to The Wire, both these clinicians said that they are launching studies with the help of other institutions to try and answer this question. Chaudhry said he was in touch with a renowned private university in Delhi-NCR to investigate whether something has "gone wrong with the functioning of our T-cells and B-cells that form our immunity'. These are the cells which are main components of the human immune system and allow it to do what it does. Dravid is working with the Pune-based National Institute of Virology (NIV). 'We want to check the blood samples of those who tell us that their capacity to carry out daily deeds has dramatically gone down which has seriously affected their lives [with those who haven't reported this problem]. And we want to know whether their B cells, their T cells, their antibodies, their gut bacteria, their nose viruses — whether they are any different from others. So we are in the process of doing a biorepository,' he said. Dravid says the initial tests are already providing some hints. The T cells are in smaller numbers than those who don't suffer from Long Covid Issues. In simple terms, if these 'very initial results' hold true, it would mean the long haulers have weakened immune systems now. This, in turn, may explain a number of problems these people are grappling with – from heart issues to gut diseases and many more in between. Dravid says the remnants of the dead virus have remained inside the bodies of those suffering from Long Covid for quite some time, even after they got a Covid-negative test report. Dr B.V. Murali Mohan, a pulmonologist who headed a Long Covid clinic in a private Bengaluru hospital, shares this opinion. Since the remnants of the virus were dead, they did not make the patient sick, per se. But they remained inside the body, and therefore kept triggering the immune system to mount a battle despite them being dead, simply because they are foreign elements. This, according to Dravid, might have resulted in the exhaustion of immunity – known as immunosense. Due to this exhaustion, the system could not adequately do its job when a new infection happened, thus making long haulers more sick. Range of diseases Long Covid is an umbrella term for a host of medical conditions. According to World Health Organisation's definition of Long Covid: 'Post COVID-19 condition occurs in individuals with a history of probable or confirmed SARSCoV-2 infection, usually 3 months from the onset of COVID-19 with symptoms that last for at least 2 months and cannot be explained by an alternative diagnosis.' According to the WHO, 6% of all COVID-19 patients suffer from Long Covid. In absolute numbers, this can be extremely high. The US-CDC estimated this number to be 6.9% in 2022 in the country. In India, an Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) study published in 2023 reported 6.6-11.9% prevalence of three specific Long Covid conditions – fatigue, dyspnoea (breathing difficulty) and mental health. The Wire wrote an email to ICMR on March 24 asking if it has conducted a study to know the broader prevalence rate in India, after this one. The ICMR did not reply despite repeated reminders. In the first part of this series, The Wire spoke to people suffering from Long Covid about their symptoms and difficulties. Doctors The Wire spoke to also listed a range of issues – most of them overlapping with what the patients had said. Murali Mohan of Bengaluru Hospital found most Long Covid patients to be recovering in the long term, but Pune's Dravid said many of his patients are suffering even now. All the doctors that The Wire spoke to made it clear that five years down the line, the number of new Long Covid patients has declined dramatically. According to the World Health Organisation, Long Covid conditions can develop a maximum of three months after infection. Like all other viruses, Sars-Cov-2 is still around, but with its intensity significantly reduced. People are still getting COVID-19 – and so the possibility of Long Covid in new patients isn't zero just yet. One of the most common issues is cognitive decline, commonly known as 'brain fog'. 'Professors have come up to me saying they frequently lose their train of thought during lectures,' Dravid said. Murali Mohan has had some patients who still haven't recovered from cognitive decline. There is no consensus on the pathway of virus causing brain fog. Dr Chaudhry believes that if a virus entered the bloodstream via the lungs, it could have breached the barrier between blood and brain in some cases. The virus could have also impacted the nervous system, known scientifically as 'micro-neural damage', thus affecting the brain. He said that some of the damage in the brain is also reflected in MRIs and other scans. One of the triggers that led doctors to ask for these scans was loss of sense of smell. The virus, according to studies like this, can negatively impact the olfactory bulb – the part of the brain which is responsible for activating the sense of smell. So once a patient reported loss of smell, doctors asked for brain scans. These scans showed that some parts of the brain were affected. Whenever an infection takes place, the immune system mounts a response. At times, it goes into overdrive and affects otherwise healthy organs of the body, by mistake. The diseases caused by this act are called autoimmune diseases. Long Covid patients have reported neurological conditions like multiple sclerosis. It is an autoimmune disorder in which the spinal cord and the nerves in the brain suffer abnormalities. Chaudhry is also particularly worried about the long persistence of pneumonia in Long Covid patients or even those who don't fit under this broad umbrella term. 'In my 30 years of practice, I have never seen this big a number of patients suffering from pneumonia,' he said. Murali Mohan says interstitial lung disease, a long-term ailment which "cripples the lives of people", is something he has commonly observed after the pandemic. Past experience suggests that some viruses have also triggered this disease, and therefore, Sars-Cov-2 doing the same shouldn't surprise clinicians. 'The autoimmune phenomenon can impact the brain, the nervous system, the lungs and so on,' Murali Mohan said. The gut, which holds the key to many digestion-related functions, also seems to get affected because of the COVID-19 virus. The good bacteria in the gut does not let toxins enter the bloodstream. With the gut suffering, its 'gatekeeper' role goes for a toss. Consequently, the body's internal systems are exposed to a whole range of toxins, which can cause a number of diseases. Some Long Covid patients come to Dravid with psychiatric problems like nervousness, hopelessness and excess anxiety. 'Family members say their patient was such a calm person before COVID. Now s/he is like a cat on a hot tin roof — completely anxious, keeps shouting at us for simple things.' Apart from the issues mentioned, all these doctors spoke of seeing patients with the most common Long Covid problems like an increased heart rate, chronic fatigue, chest pain, breathlessness, palpitations, etc. which substantially affect the quality of life. Matters of the heart A group of problems related to the heart have been a key issue for Long Covid patients. The American Heart Association says the risk of heart attack and strokes following a COVID-19 infection remains increased at least up to three years later in adults. Even children's and adolescents' hearts can be adversely affected, says this study published on April 11, 2025. Dr K. Srinath Reddy, former head of the Public Health Foundation of India and former head of AIIMS' cardiology department, says COVID-19 infection can wreak havoc on the heart in multiple ways. One among them is inflammation. As a result of any infection, when the immune system rushes to do its job, it leads to inflammation. In most cases this inflammation subsides on its own, but in some it does not. This is true for infections with various pathogens; Sars-Cov-2 is no exception. Inflammation can damage the inner lining of blood vessels. Veins transport blood from the heart to different organs and arteries do the reverse. They are both vessels, and if vessels are affected, clotting, also known as thrombosis, takes place. This causes heart attacks. The second pathway to heart attack due to COVID-19 could be the autoimmune. As explained above, an autoimmune scenario destroys healthy organs of the body, in some cases the heart and blood vessels.. Deranged lipid profile (three types of cholesterol indicators and triglycerides) and abnormal sugar levels can also affect blood vessels adversely. High blood sugar is a noted post-Covid complication. Reddy says a combination of all these pathways can lead to heart attacks. To know the exact pathway, more research is needed. Link with Covid One of the biggest challenges is to establish that the patients developed these conditions because of COVID-19 and hence can be treated under the Long Covid umbrella. Doctors like Murali Mohan believe that patients may have developed some of these problems anyway, with or without Covid. The other possibility is that they existed before COVID-19 infection, in a latent manner. The infection worsened the symptoms, leading to their full-fledged manifestation. The third possibility is that the COVID-19 virus itself caused these problems. There are several reasons why a direct link is difficult to establish. One is that most investigations, including scans and bloodwork for testing biomarkers, show nothing wrong with the body. Biomarkers are molecules in the blood – if their levels are outside of the normal range, it shows that the body isn't functioning normally. But Long Covid patients, as all of those who spoke to The Wire said, continue to suffer – despite their 'clean' test results. Dravid says physicians need to think out of the box. The CD4 count is a biomarker that marks the status of immunity, especially for HIV patients as their immune system is heavily compromised. There are indications now to suggest that COVID-19 may have altered immune systems to a greater extent. Dravid says if the count is tested for Long Covid patients, and it turns out to be low, then it may give an understanding of an underfunctioning immune system. That itself can be a clue to many of the conditions that Long Covid patients grapple with. 'If patients are coming with allergies following a COVID-19 infection, how about checking the IgG, IgA, IgM levels — that is, immunoglobulin levels — which we otherwise use to check for allergy patients. This is something that many of us may not be doing now for Long Covid patients,' he said. 'Maybe biomarkers for Long Covid conditions are different, which we have not been able to find out yet. We are only trying to test those biomarkers which are commonly associated with a particular disease,' he said. The medical community worldwide is grappling to fill the gaps of biomarkers. This study, a 'global expert consensus' published on April 20, 2025, lists a whole range of biomarkers that doctors must look into for Long Covid patients. It indicates investigations for every system of the body. The other difficulty is to establish a cause-and-effect relationship between these conditions and COVID-19 infection. Because the pathway isn't usually clear, doctors are hesitant to come to such conclusions. Sometimes, doctors have found that nutrient deficiency also causes similar conditions – thus delinking 'Long Covid' symptoms from a COVID-19 infection. 'The significant deficiency of Vitamin D as well as Vitamin B12 can have specific and nonspecific effects causing a number of diseases,' Chaudhry said. These deficiencies are examples of the 'confounders' which render doctors unsure what caused the diseases – Long Covid or other reasons. Confounders are findings that may not align with the conclusions one would normally have drawn. Delhi-based Dr Hitakshi Sharma, a community medicine specialist, stresses on checking minerals levels to rule out their deficiency, because that can also lead to some of these conditions. Despite the existence of these confounders, Sars-Cov-2 is not an anomaly as far as post viral and bacterial illness are concerned. Other viruses too have been known to cause complications when patients have recovered from infections caused by them. Long-term joint and muscle pain in patients post a chikungunya infection is a common occurrence. Even after fully recovering from a tuberculosis infection, some people continue to have impaired lung functioning. Ditto for swine flu. Doctors say since COVID-19 affected so many patients in a span of just a few years, they see more patients suffering with post-viral illness and the word 'long' got prefixed to these diseases – which is not the case with other infections. Clinicians' dilemma With these uncertainties, doctors are hesitant on two counts as far as Long Covid patients are concerned. First, they aren't sure if all the problems that Long Covid patients face indeed happened following a Covid infection, and so, how to treat the issues. Second, and more importantly, investigations don't reveal anything for a lot of these patients, and so doctors end up rejecting the possibility that illness exists. 'I agree it is very difficult to decide whether COVID-19 is the cause or something else is. But if the patient is saying there is a temporal association with COVID-19, we should give those symptoms credence – at least hear them out – and not just dismiss their conditions,' Dravid said. Murali Mohan says doctors are being 'close-minded' when they refuse to recognise Long Covid patients' symptoms just because they can't see anything obviously wrong. "The most hurtful thing for any patient is rejection with contempt,' he said. Both Dravid and Murali Mohan stressed on doctors giving adequate time to Long Covid patients in their OPDs. They said that these patients may need to be heard for half an hour or even more to understand what they are saying. This is made even more important by the fact that investigations don't always reveal the issue. Asking the right questions and taking down a detailed history is vital for these patients, they believe. "Look at their physical issues. Rule out any underlying cause [which could have been present before COVID-19 infection]...that can be the first step,' Murali Mohan advises. It is definitely a difficult thing to do, though, he said. Dravid came across Long Covid patients who had already seen multiple consultants before visiting him. They were, therefore, exhausted by repeating their history again and again. 'That is when we doctors need to be sympathetic,' he said. This Pune-based physician added that it is impossible to quantify many of their conditions, say fatigue, cognitive decline or breathlessness. The absence of quantification makes clinicians sceptical about the problems of Long Covid patients. The road ahead When doctors themselves have not yet understood Long Covid and the issues it presents, treatment protocol becomes complicated. For example, autoimmune diseases, in general, are treated with steroids. However, when the autoimmune pathways to Long Covid conditions are not undeniably proven, it is difficult for doctors to prescribe steroids to patients, says Murali Mohan. Dravid says occupational therapy could be a graded way to help Long Covid patients suffering from chronic fatigue. 'And, then of course, psychological support to them can go a long way in helping them,' he said. Adopting a multidisciplinary approach that includes the services of a rheumatologist (for autoimmune conditions), immunologist, physical medicine specialist, cardiologist and physiotherapist can be the key, he feels. A Long Covid patient The Wire spoke to said she received such a treatment when she was in the US. But the road ahead can be bumpy for Long Covid patients despite the best of intentions of a section of doctors. They say while these patients can recover to some extent, their quality of life may not recover to levels they were at before. Dravid, though, adds a rider to this thought: ongoing research on Long Covid may potentially throw up solutions that could reverse the problem completely. Until then, a sympathetic clinician could help manage the symptoms. The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.
