After three years of the pandemic, the veil is beginning to be lifted on the \u201cmystery\u201d of long COVID, a syndrome causing chronic and sometimes incapacitating symptoms following an infection with SARS-CoV-2. Explanations and personal accounts.<\/p>\n
According to Dr David Putrino, long COVID is no longer just a theory. \u201cThere are so many good studies published in various scientific journals that clearly show the physiological differences between people who are infected and those who are not. We know that this is a physiological disease,\u201d says this neuroscientist and physiotherapist from Mount Sinai Hospital in New York.<\/p>\n
SARS-CoV-2 is an \u201cinsidious\u201d virus, adds this expert who has been treating long COVID for three years. \u201cA pandemic in the shadows.\u201d<\/p>\n
Worldwide, it is estimated that between 10% and 20% of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 have persistent symptoms. As a result, at least 65 million people worldwide are thought to be suffering from this syndrome, characterised by the presence of symptoms beyond 12 weeks after a COVID-19 infection.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if we wanted to ignore long COVID, we can\u2019t because it affects too many people. We can\u2019t silence these millions of people; they all want answers.\u201d<\/p>\n
While researchers have not yet established with certainty the underlying biological mechanisms, there are a few hypotheses, which were described in a recent study in the journal Nature<\/em><\/a> by researchers from the Scripps Research Institute in California, USA.<\/p>\n \u201cThe disease may seem very different to different people, but they all have one thing in common: the reduction in quality of life after a COVID-19 infection,\u201d explains Julia Moore Vogel, a clinical trials specialist and co-author of this meta-analysis, which surveyed more than 200 studies. She herself has been suffering from brain fog and extreme fatigue as a result of long COVID since July 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The majority of people experience extreme fatigue and many suffer post-stress discomfort, a kind of energy crash. Brain fog, lack of concentration and memory loss are also common symptoms.<\/p>\n Some people develop conditions and syndromes such as postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), characterized by dizziness and palpitations when a person is in a upright position. Others develop dysautonomia, which causes palpitations, pressure rises or falls, dizziness and gastric problems.<\/p>\n