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Tag: long COVID

Topic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID

‘Alarming’ rise in Americans with long Covid symptoms

Published March 15, 2024

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Published by: The Guardian
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By Melody Schreiber

Some 6.8% of American adults are currently experiencing long Covid symptoms, according to a new survey from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), revealing an “alarming” increase in recent months even as the health agency relaxes Covid isolation recommendations, experts say.

That means an estimated 17.6 million Americans could now be living with long Covid.

“This should be setting off alarms for many people,” said David Putrino, the Nash Family Director of the Cohen Center for Recovery From Complex Chronic Illness at Mount Sinai. “We’re really starting to see issues emerging faster than I expected.”

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Topic: British ColumbiaView all posts for the topic: British Columbia

Long COVID Patients Say WorkSafeBC Is Making Life Worse

Published March 11, 2024

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Published by: The Tyee
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By Brishti Basu

Maryanne Andrew has been getting sicker and sicker since she caught COVID-19 in January 2022 while working in a Campbell River school.

And instead of helping, she says, WorkSafeBC’s attempts to require her to go back to work have made her symptoms worse.

Andrew is among more than two million Canadians still suffering from long-term COVID symptoms as of last summer, according to a Statistics Canada survey, which also found about half of the patients reported not seeing any improvements in their condition over time.

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We ignored AIDS. Let’s not repeat the mistake on long COVID | EditorialActivists disrupt a Senate committee hearing on January 18, 2024. Copyright © Joshua Boaz Pribanic for Public Herald. Licensed under Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 DEED license.
Topic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID

We ignored AIDS. Let’s not repeat the mistake on long COVID | Editorial

Published March 10, 2024

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Published by: Star-Ledger
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By Star-Ledger Editorial Board

In the earliest days of the AIDS crisis, America ignored the problem, even though people were dropping dead by the thousands.

We’re repeating the mistake now with long COVID. Millions are suffering, but the government has largely turned its back, as new cases emerge with each passing wave.

So people are coming from all over the country this week to Washington D.C., in the footsteps of AIDS activists, to protest at the Lincoln Memorial on March 15th. They’re desperate for their stories to be heard.

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Topic: MontrealView all posts for the topic: Montreal

Radio | Quatre ans avec la COVID longue, le témoignage d’une famille montréalaise

Published March 10, 2024

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Published by: Radio-Canada / Tout terrain
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Three years after the WHO declared the pandemic, this report plunges into the heart of the upset daily life of a Montreal family affected by…

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Topic: hearing lossView all posts for the topic: hearing loss

COVID is not done and gone, nor is it particular

Published March 9, 2024

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Published by: Star Tribune
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By Martha Wegner

On Dec. 27, 2023, I spent the afternoon playing mahjong. That was to be the last day I was able to hear the pleasing click-clacking sound of those plastic tiles as they are tumbled and mixed on the table.

I came home from my mahjong game that afternoon and reported to my husband that I had a sore throat. Darn, the start of another cold. That turned into a very bad cold, with an incessantly runny nose, sneezing and congestion. As I talked on the phone with my sister on my way to run errands, she urged me to take a COVID test. I could not understand why, since I had no cough, no loss of taste or smell, no shortness of breath. But I acquiesced to her wisdom — though not before I finished shopping the many aisles of Target, unknowingly spreading the virus to my fellow shoppers. Sure enough, the COVID test was positive. That was the beginning of the end — the end of me being able to hear the mahjong tiles, the delighted squeals of my grandson and the high-pitched tweets of the songbirds returning for spring.

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Topic: QuebecView all posts for the topic: Quebec

Four years later, long COVID continues to upend lives in Quebec

Published March 9, 2024

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Published by: Montreal Gazette
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By Jesse Feith

Sylvie Gagnon has been struggling with the symptoms of long COVID since early 2023, when she caught the virus for a fourth time since the outset of the pandemic.

A business development manager, Gagnon has been off work ever since. Needing help with daily tasks, she’s had to move in with her son and daughter-in-law.

On the few days she manages to leave the house in Vaudreuil-Dorion, she wears sunglasses and earmuffs — the condition has played havoc with her senses, leaving her hypersensitive to light and noise. Her pressure spikes without warning. Any exercise causes extreme fatigue.

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Topic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID

Living With Long COVID: ‘You Feel Like You Have Been Poisoned’

Published March 9, 2024

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Published by: Newsweek
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By Pandora Dewan

“The sensation often felt akin to being poisoned.”

Katherine Francis, 30, has been living with long COVID for three and a half years. “I was originally infected in October 2020, just a week before starting a new job in PR,” Francis told Newsweek. “Three and a half years later, much of my life is still largely confined to the four walls of my home, with occasional outings to various hospital appointments.”

“I’ve been diagnosed with Inappropriate Sinus Tachycardia, Dysautonomia, asthma and lung scarring to name a few, all attributed to Long COVID.”

Long COVID can affect anyone, irrespective of the severity of their initial infection. At least 65 million individuals have been affected by this chronic post-viral condition worldwide, a study published in the journal Nature Reviews Microbiology in January 2023 reports, equating to roughly 1 in 10 individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2.

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Study of 1 million US kids shows vaccines tied to lower risk of long COVIDA young child receives a dose of a COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccine clinic in Baltimore County, Maryland. Public domain photo from Baltimore County Government / Flickr.
Topic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID

Study of 1 million US kids shows vaccines tied to lower risk of long COVID

Published March 8, 2024

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Published by: CIDRAP
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By Stephanie Soucheray

A study of 1,037,936 US children seen in 17 healthcare systems across the country shows that COVID-19 vaccines are moderately protective against long COVID: 35% to 45%, with higher rates in adolescents. The study was published today in Pediatrics.

The researchers estimated vaccine effectiveness (VE) against long COVID in children aged 5 to 17 years. Though severe COVID-19 cases are less common in children than in adults, persistent symptoms in children do occur.

“It is difficult to establish how much this results from differential reporting of symptoms at different ages, greater difficulty distinguishing long COVID from other childhood illnesses or effects of the pandemic (eg, disruption of seasonal viral patterns, or of school progress,” the authors wrote.

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Topic: first-person storiesView all posts for the topic: first-person stories

Covid Became a Pandemic 4 Years Ago. How Does Your Life Look Now?

Published March 8, 2024

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Published by: The New York Times
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We want to hear from readers on how your life has or hasn’t changed.

Monday marks four years since the World Health Organization declared Covid a pandemic. Since then, millions of people around the world have died from the virus, and today, the persistent impact of long Covid is being studied and the latest variant to become dominant, JN.1, continues to spread in the United States.

Though the W.H.O. dropped its global health emergency designation in May 2023, life for many people continues to look very different now than it did before March 2020, when most of the world first went into lockdown to try to halt the virus’s spread.

We want to hear from you about your life. Do any new considerations shape your daily routine, or your decisions regarding friends and family? Has Covid changed your overall outlook?

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Topic: SwedenView all posts for the topic: Sweden

Radio | New report fails to address Covid impacts for children

Published March 7, 2024

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Published by: Radio Sweden
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  • A Public Health Agency investigation into the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on children’s health is facing criticism, as it does not address how Covid infections directly affected children and their families.
  • Instead, the Swedish Covid Association says attention in the report has been focused on how school closures and other restrictions affected children’s well-being.
  • Social Affairs and Public Health Minister Jakob Forssmed tells Swedish Radio News there are valid reasons for having a wide-ranging investigation.
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Topic: cognitive declineView all posts for the topic: cognitive decline

Des déclins cognitifs constatés après une infection à la COVID-19

Published March 7, 2024

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Published by: Radio-Canada
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By Mélanie Meloche-Holubowski

Scientific evidence about the long-term effects of COVID-19 continues to accumulate. Two new studies involving hundreds of thousands of people suggest that SARS-CoV-2 infections can cause cognitive decline.

Researchers at Imperial College, London recruited nearly 113,000 Britons previously infected with the COVID-19 virus for their study. These individuals engaged in various cognitive exercises to assess their memory and their faculties of concentration and attention. Their results were compared to those of people never infected.

The results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, show that the coronavirus is believed to impair cognitive abilities and the intelligence quotient (IQ).

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Topic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID

Even healthcare workers face difficulty accessing long-COVID care, review suggests

Published March 6, 2024

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Published by: CIDRAP
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By Mary Van Beusekom

Healthcare workers (HCWs) with long-COVID symptoms reported that their physicians shrugged off their concerns and that they struggled to get the care they needed, a new systematic review suggests.

For the rapid review, published yesterday in PLOS One, researchers from the University of Aberdeen and Robert Gordon University in Scotland reviewed 30 studies published from December 2019 to December 2022 to evaluate the effects of long COVID on HCW health, working life, personal circumstances, and use of healthcare resources. Two of the studies provided qualitative evidence, and 28 survey studies offered quantitative evidence.

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Topic: advocacyView all posts for the topic: advocacy

Canadian Covid Society launches to address long-term effects, prevent further illness

Published March 6, 2024

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Published by: CityNews / The Canadian Press
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By Nicole Ireland

A national non-profit group called the Canadian Covid Society launched on Wednesday, with co-founders saying the organization is needed as public health agencies have pulled back on COVID-19 prevention measures and awareness campaigns.

“I feel in some ways we’re filling a gap where public health has left open,” Dr. Joe Vipond, one of the society’s five co-founders, said at a news conference.

In his home province of Alberta, “there’s basically no mention of COVID. There’s no mention of long COVID. It’s really fallen off the radar for a lot of public health at this point,” said Vipond, who is an emergency physician in Calgary.

“While the acute phase of the pandemic has ended, the virus continues to cause significant chronic illness,” the Canadian Covid Society’s website says.

COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death across Canada in 2022, behind heart disease and cancer, it says.

“It still continues to be a stressor on our health system up to this present day. It is contributing to poor health and excess deaths,” said Dr. Kashif Pirzada, another co-founder of the society.

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Topic: United KingdomView all posts for the topic: United Kingdom

Long Covid: Health staff go to court for compensation

Published March 6, 2024

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Published by: BBC
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By Catherine Burns

Nearly 70 healthcare workers with long Covid have taken their fight to the High Court to try to sue the NHS and other employers for compensation.

The staff, from England and Wales, believe they first caught Covid at work during the pandemic and say they were not properly protected from the virus.

Many of them say they are left with life-changing disabilities and are likely to lose income as a result.

The Department of Health said “there are lessons to be learnt” from Covid.

The group believe they were not provided with adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) at work, which includes eye protection, gloves, gowns and aprons.

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Topic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID

I’m back, long COVID never went away and world is still a mess

Published March 6, 2024

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Published by: Toronto Star
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By Heather Mallick

Star readers are the best and my Star readers are even better, a finer grind of bean. While I was off work recently recovering from long COVID, plus a medication error, I heard from many concerned subscribers.

Was I ill? On a lavish vacation? Was I returning? In the nicest possible way, I suspect they were checking if I were deceased, their emails being that little kick you give to possible roadkill. Is that inert coyote going to make it? Well, it looks pretty squished. Has anyone phoned her house?

Readers suggested cures, mainly vitamins and turmeric, but one recommended a device, electric copper rods that look like curling irons. I’m supposed to hold them in my hands, usually after dinner, the reader said. You can sit and watch the news, gently self-electrocuting.

Three and a half million Canadians have long COVID symptoms, but you hardly hear from them or about them, mainly because they work from home, if they work at all. Some symptoms are non-stop exhaustion, breathing difficulty, pain, headaches, insomnia, dizziness. Medical science offers no treatment yet.

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Low iron levels resulting from infection could be key trigger of long COVIDA man sitting on a couch holding his head in his hands. Photo by Malachi Cowie / Unsplash.
Topic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID

Low iron levels resulting from infection could be key trigger of long COVID

Published March 4, 2024

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Published by: University of Cambridge
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Problems with iron levels in the blood and the body’s ability to regulate this important nutrient as a result of SARS-CoV-2 infection could be a key trigger for long COVID, new research has discovered.

The discovery not only points to possible ways to prevent or treat the condition, but could help explain why symptoms similar to those of long COVID are also commonly seen in a number of post-viral conditions and chronic inflammation.

Although estimates are highly variable, as many as three in 10 people infected with SARS-CoV-2 could go on to develop long COVID, with symptoms including fatigue, shortness of breath, muscle aches and problems with memory and concentration (‘brain fog’). An estimated 1.9 million people in the UK alone were experiencing self-reported long COVID as of March 2023, according to the Office of National Statistics.

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Topic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID

Atteinte de la COVID longue, une Néo-Écossaise désire que la maladie soit mieux reconnue

Published March 3, 2024

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Published by: Radio-Canada
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Two months after contracting COVID-19, Beth Wood found that she had trouble concentrating and was easily irritated and always tired. While it is among the 3.5 million Canadians with long COVID, according to Statistics Canada, access to disability benefits remains complex.

Beth Wood has been a social worker for 40 years. Although the boss of the community centre where she works in Halifax offered her support to resume her work, she feels that she is constantly swimming against the current.

She is now considering applying for a long-term disability benefit, but she is concerned that the road is long.

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Topic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID

De l’espoir pour les femmes atteintes de syndromes de fatigue chronique

Published March 3, 2024

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Published by: La Presse
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By Mathieu Perreault

Research into long COVID may benefit other fatigue syndromes that follow infections. These difficult to diagnose and treat disorders affect twice as many women as men. A symbol of sexism in medicine?

“When we started talking about long COVID at the end of 2020, patients told me how close it was to their symptoms,” says Durand, epidemiologist from the Université de Montréal who studied a cohort of patients with long COVID. “These are patients who for years had chronic fatigue, mental fog, abnormally low resistance to exertion. Doctors often told them it was in their heads. These are symptoms that are called “non-specific.” There are no diagnostic tests.”

These problems are often grouped under the term “acute post-infection syndrome.” “The idea is that there are things that have changed with the infection, and there are still sequelae that we can’t measure right now,” says Durand. “Since many people have had COVID-19, there are many cases of long COVID. We are talking about 15% of COVID-19 cases. So there’s a lot of funding for long COVID.”

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