A new retrospective cohort study conducted in Dubai shows that the antiviral nirmatrelvir plus ritonavir, sold as Paxlovid, is tied to a 61% reduction in COVID-19 hospitalization and a 58% lower rate of long COVID.
Comments closedTag: long COVID
Topic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID
‘Do no harm’ is hurting 400 million long Covid patients worldwide
Imagine, for a moment, that you wake up one morning with a debilitating illness that won’t let go. Weeks and months pass, but the crushing fatigue, constant headaches, and aching muscles remain. You can’t think straight. Simply showering or doing the dishes leaves you floored for days at a time, and the unpredictable symptoms — shortness of breath, dizziness, a racing heart — ebb and flow without warning. You find your life as you knew it slipping away.
This is life with long Covid: a condition that transforms the familiar rhythms of daily life into a living nightmare and constant battle for energy and clarity. But what happens when the only hope of lessening its severity becomes an issue of equity?
We are two of the more than 400 million people worldwide who have experienced long Covid. While we are both over four years into this illness, there is still not a single FDA-approved treatment for this devastating condition. Given the slow pace of research and development, there is unlikely to be proven treatment for years — possibly decades.
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Long COVID patients suffer high rate of autonomic disorders, researchers say
Medical researchers at the University of Calgary say a condition affecting autonomic bodily processes — those that occur automatically, such as heart rate, bladder function and sweating — is frequently found in people diagnosed with long COVID.
The condition is known as dysautonomia, an umbrella term for a group of related conditions. Support networks for those who suffer from it are working to raise awareness throughout October, which has been deemed Dysautonomia Awareness Month by the advocacy group, Dysautonomia International.
Comments closedSince the COVID pandemic began, claims that the disease poses only minimal risk to children have spread widely, on the presumption that the lower rate of severe acute illness in kids tells the whole story. Notions that children are nearly immune to COVID and don’t need to be vaccinated have pervaded.
These ideas are wrong. People making such claims ignore the accumulating risk of long COVID, the constellation of long-term health effects caused by infection, in children who may get infected once or twice a year. The condition may already have affected nearly six million kids in the U.S. Children need us to wake up to this serious threat. If we do, we can help our kids with a few straightforward and effective measures.
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Ultra-powered MRI scans show damage to brain’s ‘control centre’ is behind long-lasting Covid-19 symptoms
Damage to the brainstem – the brain’s ‘control centre’ – is behind long-lasting physical and psychiatric effects of severe Covid-19 infection, a study suggests.
Using ultra-high-resolution scanners that can see the living brain in fine detail, researchers from the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford were able to observe the damaging effects Covid-19 can have on the brain.
The study team scanned the brains of 30 people who had been admitted to hospital with severe Covid-19 early in the pandemic, before vaccines were available. The researchers found that Covid-19 infection damages the region of the brainstem associated with breathlessness, fatigue and anxiety.
Comments closedTopic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID
Call for the creation of a national registry for long COVID
The second Canadian Symposium on Long COVID came to a close in Edmonton on Friday, with an urgent call for the establishment of a national registry for the condition.
The event, organized by Long Covid Web, a network dedicated to research and support for people suffering from post COVID-19 condition, in collaboration with the University of Alberta, University of Calgary, and Alberta Health Services, brought together researchers, clinicians and patients to discuss the challenges associated with the condition.
The speakers’ testimonies highlighted the devastating impact of long COVID on patients’ daily lives.
Comments closedTopic: medical treatmentsView all posts for the topic: medical treatments
Want To Prevent Long Covid? Should You Take Metformin Or Paxlovid?
Previously, I wrote about Paxlovid being underprescribed for treating acute Covid in patients at high risk for serious illness. The FDA granted an Emergency Use Authorization based on data showing that “Paxlovid significantly reduced the proportion of people with Covid-19 related hospitalization or death” by 88% compared to placebo.
In unvaccinated people, Paxlovid was also associated with a 26% lower risk of long Covid in a study by Ziyad Al-Aly.
The data on Paxlovid for those previously vaccinated is mixed. A smaller study from the University of California at San Francisco found no benefit in people who had been previously vaccinated.
Comments closedTopic: reinfectionsView all posts for the topic: reinfections
What Repeat COVID Infections Do to Your Body, According to Science
These days, it’s tempting to compare COVID-19 with the common cold or flu. It can similarly leave you with a nasty cough, fever, sore throat—the full works of respiratory symptoms. And it’s also become a part of the societal fabric, perhaps something you’ve resigned yourself to catching at least a few times in your life (even if you haven’t already). But let’s not forget: SARS-CoV-2 (the virus responsible for COVID) is still relatively new, and researchers are actively investigating the toll of reinfection on the body. While there are still a lot of unknowns, one thing seems to be increasingly true: Getting COVID again and again is a good deal riskier than repeat hits of its seasonal counterparts.
It turns out, SARS-CoV-2 is more nefarious than these other contagious bugs, and our immune response to it, often larger and longer-lasting. COVID has a better ability to camouflage itself in the body, “and it has the keys to the kingdom in the sense that it can unlock any cell and get in,” says Esther Melamed, PhD, an assistant professor in the department of neurology at Dell Medical School, University of Texas Austin, and the research director of the Post-COVID-19 program at UT Health Austin. That’s because SARS-CoV-2 binds to ACE2 receptors, which exist in cells all over your body, from your heart to your gut to your brain. (By contrast, cold and flu viruses replicate mostly in your respiratory tract.)
Comments closedTopic: vaccinesView all posts for the topic: vaccines
No good option: These Canadians want to be protected against COVID but are unhappy with the choice of vaccines this fall
The federal government has decided against procuring a protein-based COVID-19 vaccine for the fall immunization campaign — despite it being the only type that some immunocompromised people say they have been able to tolerate.
While the mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna are effective at preventing severe illness, hospitalization and death, some people with autoimmune diseases say the jabs can come with a terrible trade-off.
Comments closedTopic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID
Study: Individuals with pre-existing disabilities had long COVID at much higher rates than peers
The COVID-19 pandemic has been especially hard on individuals with disabilities. New research from the University of Kansas shows that this population is also experiencing long COVID at significantly higher rates than the general population, which exacerbates existing barriers to accessing care.
Researchers from KU’s Institute for Health and Disability Policy Studies at the KU Life Span Institute and the Patient-Led Research Collaborative published a study showing that more than 40% of individuals with pre-existing disabilities who had tested positive for COVID-19 experienced long COVID, defined as symptoms lasting three months or longer. This rate is more than twice the 18.9% of individuals without disabilities who contracted COVID and experienced long COVID symptoms.
Research has long documented that individuals with disabilities face barriers to health care access and experience poorer health outcomes than their nondisabled peers. However, many studies during the pandemic have only asked about disabilities present at the time of the survey rather than whether individuals had a disability prior to the start of the pandemic. The research team compared data from the 2022 National Survey on Health and Disability, conducted by the IHDPS, to the Household Pulse Survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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School’s back and so is a COVID-19 surge: Protecting kids and precarious workers
The 2024 school year is beginning amid one of the biggest COVID-19 waves of the pandemic.
One U.S doctor states, “This is a very significant surge. The levels are very high. They’re the highest we’ve ever seen during a summer wave.” It might be hard to think about, but we’re still in a pandemic and experts are warning against COVID-19 complacency in schools.
Dying with COVID-19 in the acute phase may have decreased, but complications from an infection exist — more than 2 million Canadians have “long COVID” (LC). In this context, societies that see themselves as equitable, inclusive and just need to consider if they’re doing the best job protecting their more vulnerable members, like children and many precarious workers. Research shows governments are not doing the best protecting the rights of children in a crisis, and reports from workers indicate some feel abandoned and left to deal with scary health situations, largely on their own. For school staff, students, their families and communities, this all seems quite cruel. It does not need to be this way.
Comments closedTopic: hearing lossView all posts for the topic: hearing loss
Covid associated with increased risk for hearing loss in young adults
Covid can lead to the loss of smell and taste, but another sense may also be at risk.
A recent study published in the Lancet’s eClinicalMedicine journal reported that a positive coronavirus diagnosis was associated with a more than threefold increase in risk for subsequent hearing loss in young adults.
The effects of covid can linger and affect nearly every organ system, increasing the risk for cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and cognitive impairment.
The new research may be an “alert” that “covid-19 may be an independent risk factor for hearing loss and sudden sensorineural hearing loss among young adults,” said Hye Jun Kim, a biomedical sciences PhD candidate at Seoul National University and an author of the study.
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