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Long covid, or long-term covid, is devastating the lives and livelihoods of tens of millions of people worldwide, causing immense damage to healthcare systems and economies. For that reason, countries must take ‘immediate and long-term’ measures to tackle this ‘very serious crisis’. That’s what the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
According to the WHO boss, the world is well on track to end the corona pandemic, but at the same time it is clear that many people infected by the virus are still “suffering for a long time”. Since the outbreak started in China in 2019, an estimated 6.5 million people have died from the virus worldwide. About 600 million people became infected. The WHO estimates that 10 to 20 percent of them have long-term complaints from the infection, such as fatigue, shortness of breath and cognitive impairment.
Because it is still not clear how to treat lung covid, the lives of many affected are at a standstill while they wait for support or guidance. These diseases also have a significant impact on healthcare systems and economies that are still trying to recover from the corona pandemic. If countries want to minimize ‘the suffering of the population’, they must immediately increase research into lung covid and improve access to care for patients, the WHO said.
Earlier this month, research showed that some 17 million people in Europe alone have had or are still suffering from lung covid. Women are twice as likely to develop lung covid as men. The risk of long-term symptoms increases dramatically in severe infections requiring hospitalization.