"Long Covid" still puzzles doctors

"Long Covid" still puzzles doctors

 

Medical professionals are working to understand more about a condition they are calling "long Covid," among patients who experience lingering symptoms months after recovering from a coronavirus infection.   "Persons with long Covid often present reporting persistent, severe fatigue, headaches and brain fog, which is defined as mild subjective cognitive impairment, approximately four weeks after acute illness," Dr. Alfonso Hernandez-Romieu, a member of the CDC's Covid-19 response team, said during a briefing last week.   A study recently published in the medical journal The Lancet found that of 1,733 coronavirus patients treated in the Chinese city of Wuhan, 76% were still experiencing at least one symptom six months after their symptoms began.   Doctors have reported that the severity of Covid-19 illness may have little impact on whether patients experience long Covid symptoms, Hernandez-Romieu said.   In the absence of a broad diagnosis or treatment plan for people who experience long Covid, doctors have been targeting specific symptoms for treatment, said Dr. Allison Navis, an assistant professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.   "While we don't know what's causing these symptoms, they're very real for patients, and we are seeing patients get better," Navis said.   The CDC is working with the National Institutes of Health and the World Health Organization to better define and understand long Covid.