Dr. Janet Diaz, head of the medical team in charge of finding a treatment for Covid and head of the Health Care Division at the World Health Organization, advised the urgent need to consult a doctor if the patient continues to suffer from one of the 3 common symptoms of the so-called “long-term Covid” or “post-Covid” stage.
In episode 68 of “Science in Five”, presented by Vismita Gupta Smith, Dr. Diaz said that the three symptoms are feeling sick and tired and the second is shortness or difficulty breathing, which she explained is important for those who were very active before they contracted the Corona virus. .
How to monitor symptoms
And Dr. Diaz explained that a person can monitor his breathing by following whether his activity has become limited than before, for example if a person used to run for one kilometer, does he still have the same ability, or he can no longer run for a long distance due to feeling short of breath.
The third symptom, Dr. Diaz added, is cognitive dysfunction, a term commonly referred to as “brain fog,” explaining that it means people have trouble with their attention, ability to focus, memory, sleep, or executive functioning.
Dr. Diaz noted that only these three symptoms are the most common, but in fact there are more than 200 other symptoms, some of which have been monitored by Covid-19 patients.
expressive
Increased risk to the heart
And Dr. Diaz added that suffering from shortness of breath can be due to cardiovascular symptoms in different ways, which can also appear in the form of heart palpitations, arrhythmias or myocardial infarction.
Diaz cited the results of a recent American report that included a year-long research study of patients who were infected with Covid-19, where it was proven that there is an increased risk of developing cardiovascular complications, and in some cases it reached a stroke or acute myocardial infarction, which means a heart attack. Or other causes of blood clots or blood clots with an increased risk of death from long-term complications of Covid for patients who have previously had severe cases.
Diaz said, “A person recovering from an acute infection with Covid-19 infection can start to worry that he may suffer from one or some of the symptoms of long-term Covid if it lasts more than three months, and then he should immediately consult his treating doctor, but if the symptoms disappear after a week or two.” Two weeks or a month, it’s not diagnosed as long-term COVID-19.
Suffering for more than a year
Regarding those diagnosed as long-term Covid patients, Dr. Diaz noted that they can have symptoms for longer periods, up to six months, and there are even reports of people with long-term symptoms for up to a year or more than a year.
Since long-term Covid patients, according to Dr. Diaz, suffer from different types of symptoms that affect multiple systems in the body, there is no single treatment for all patients, but each person is treated according to the symptoms he suffers from, and it is advised For the patient to turn to his attending physician or general practitioner who knows his health history well, who can in turn refer him to a specialist, in case the patient needs a neurologist, for example, or a cardiologist or a mental health specialist.
rehabilitation techniques
Dr. Diaz explained that there are currently no medications available to treat a post-Covid-19 condition, but interventions such as rehabilitation or self-adaptation techniques exist to help patients improve their quality of life while they still have these symptoms that have not yet fully recovered.
Dr. Diaz explained that, for example, a self-adaptive technique could be that if a patient is feeling unwell, they should not tire themselves out when they are tired, and try to do their activities at times of the day when they are better off. He had a cognitive impairment, he should not have to do multiple tasks at the same time, as he could try to focus on only one activity.