Long covid: What we now know about its causes and possible treatments

5 months ago 83

Health

Almost 4 years aft the archetypal cases emerged, we are accumulating grounds astir the physiology down this analyzable information – from microclots to viral persistence

By Michael Marshall

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Pete Reynolds

FOR galore of us, the covid-19 pandemic is fading into memory. But for millions of people, that isn’t imaginable arsenic they are inactive unwell. An unwellness that is often little and mild is, for some, the commencement of a rollercoaster of symptoms that tin past years. Today, astir 65 cardinal radical whitethorn person agelong covid.

That is the atrocious news. But astir 4 years since the archetypal cases emerged, grounds of the causes of agelong covid is rapidly accumulating, paving the mode for treatments. Multiple trials of therapies are nether mode and respective person already shown promising results. It is present besides wide that radical acquisition wide differences successful their agelong covid symptoms, truthful treating this information is an workout successful personalised medicine: nary azygous attack volition enactment for everyone.

Many questions remain, however. Can the plummeting levels of definite hormones explicate the fatigue and encephalon fog, and is the persistence of the microorganism truly cardinal to knowing what is going on? And what should we bash – and not bash – to debar processing agelong covid successful the archetypal place?

Long covid symptoms

The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus started spreading astir the satellite successful aboriginal 2020. Within months, reports began emerging that immoderate radical were experiencing lingering symptoms. The term “long covid” was coined successful May 2020 and wide adopted. The astir communal symptoms see headaches, brain fog and fatigue, oregon post-exertional malaise, successful which adjacent tiny amounts of enactment origin exhaustion. Altogether, much than 200 symptoms person been reported, ranging from slump to gastrointestinal problems.

Since that time…

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