Scientific concern over “long-haulers”–former COVID patients who endure months of ongoing symptoms after recovery–is fueling a fresh wave of research into what is often called post-viral syndrome. Post-COVID care programs that focus on the after-effects of the virus are opening up around the US and abroad. In the US, hospitals such as New York City’s Mount Sinai, Hackensack Meridian Health, University of Texas Medical Branch Health, and Yale Medicine’s Winchester Chest Clinic have assembled special teams to treat former COVID patients who are finding that months after “recovery” they are still unable to return to work or resume their regular lives.
Post-COVID long-haulers are struggling with symptoms such as insurmountable fatigue, shortness of breath, “brain fog,” joint and chest pain, headaches, depression, and more. Their experiences tally with earlier studies of recovered SARS and H1NI influenza patients (a 2009 study of former SARS patients found that 40% suffered from chronic fatigue 4 years after recovery). Infectious diseases expert Anthony Fauci has said that lingering post-COVID symptoms are “highly suggestive” of myalgic encephalomyelitis or chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), which often originates with viral infection. And these after-effects are not confined to those who had severe cases of COVID-19. In a study released in July, the CDC found that “COVID-19 can result in prolonged illness even among persons with milder outpatient illness, including young adults.”
Researchers are still working to understand long-haulers’ symptoms and the causes of post-viral syndrome. Many believe that at least some of the issues occur when the body’s inflammatory response fails to deactivate after the virus has left the system. Susan Bleasdale, MD, associate professor of clinical medicine and an infectious disease specialist at the University of Illinois at Chicago, told Chicago Health Online that sometimes “Your immune system gets turned on to fight this, and it’s hard to get it turned off again.” Long-term studies (1-2 years) of post-COVID patients have been launched in the US and the UK, and a September 14 article in Nature suggests that “What [these studies] find will be crucial in treating those with lasting symptoms and trying to prevent new infections from lingering.”
What can be done for the long-haulers at present? First and foremost, listen to post-COVID patients’ accounts of their symptoms, and do not discount what they are saying. The substantial number of healthcare providers who have had the virus and are still suffering has made it harder to disregard the reality of long-haul effects. Zijian Chen, MD, who heads the Mount Sinai post-COVID recovery program, told MedPage Today, “I have colleagues affected by COVID-19 who have persistent symptoms. These are some of the hardest working and most honest people I know. I don’t see anything on their scans, but I believe them. We have to believe our patients to make sure we’re not neglecting them.”
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