Those who are ill with Covid-19 should be especially careful over time, but also those who get it even without symptoms, notes a professor at the EKPA Faculty of Medicine, a pathologist. Theodora Psaltopoulouwhich states that “the gradual decline in coronavirus deaths through vaccination and the development of effective pharmaceuticals, combined with the greater transmissibility of coronavirus strains, has led millions of people to ‘long Covid’ or ‘post-Covid’ (post-Covid) internationally.”

According to the CDC, she emphasizes, this syndrome is more common in 3 categories of people. “In people who have been hospitalized or intubated, but can also occur in people with mild symptoms or even no symptoms, only with a positive Covid diagnosis.” In addition, he says that people who are not vaccinated against the coronavirus have a greater risk of developing it compared to vaccinated people who get sick again. “The last category that has a higher likelihood of post-COVID is people with other illnesses before the illness,” explains Ms Psaltopoulou.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the term “long-term Covid” includes health problems that appear in patients 3 months after a probable or confirmed infection with SARS-CoV-2, with symptoms and signs that persist for at least 2 months after that, and for which there is no other alternative diagnosis, he emphasizes.

“Symptoms can be new after recovery from the infection, or persistent from the original infection,” Ms Psaltopoulou says.

According to what he tells APE-MPE, last week the prestigious international magazine The Lancet devoted its main article (editorial) to this syndrome. “In adults, according to a new study from the Netherlands, about one in eight adult patients with Covid-19 subsequently develop long-term symptoms of the disease caused by coronavirus. An important element in the Dutch study is that patients with Covid infection were compared with people who were not infected (control group),” he notes, explaining that the main symptoms of long-term Covid-19, according to the study, are: respiratory and cardio -vascular system, musculoskeletal system and nervous system, as well as general symptoms.

“In particular, among the most common reported symptoms are: chest pain as well as chest pain when breathing, shortness of breath, muscle pain, loss of smell and/or taste, and general fatigue and weakness,” says a professor of pathology at EKPA. , recalling that EODY and the Hellenic Lung Society have detailed a diagnostic and therapeutic approach to post-COVID syndrome, in which there are many complications: respiratory, cardiovascular, renal, dermatological, rheumatological, endocrine, neuropsychiatric, vascular, urological, gastrointestinal. and others such as prolonged decimal febrile movements, weight loss and allergies, chronic pain, and exacerbation of comorbidities.

With regard to post-Covid-19 syndrome in children, he highlights that a recent CDC publication on post-Covid in children and adolescents (aged 0 to 17 years) checked data in 780,000 children and adolescents with a positive molecular test for SARS-CoV-2.

“It has been observed that in patients with Covid-19 disease, compared with patients without a medical history, the following post-COVID conditions were observed: pulmonary embolism, myocarditis and cardiomyopathy, venous thromboembolism, acute and unspecified renal failure, type I diabetes mellitus. , coagulation and coagulation disorders – episodes of bleeding, type II diabetes mellitus and cardiac arrhythmias.

Young patients with Covid-19 were also more likely to experience symptoms of post-COVID-19 syndrome, such as impaired taste and smell, impaired circulation, weakness, and musculoskeletal pain. Of course, it should be noted that all these pathological formations in children are very, very rare, regardless of whether they have been diagnosed with Covid or not. For example, there is a slight increase in relative risk (e.g. twice the relative risk of myocarditis) when a child becomes infected with Covid compared to when they are not infected,” he explains.

“In the event of symptoms that persist after illness, the patient is advised to contact their primary care physician, local health center or hospital outpatient clinics and post-COVID wards so that signs and symptoms can be assessed, basic laboratory and imaging studies performed, fill out the relevant questionnaires, conduct a clinical examination and comprehensive treatment,” concludes Ms. Psaltopoulou.

According to EODY and the Hellenic Lung Society, laboratory testing should be carried out according to the opinion of the attending physician, and not all patients infected with Covid-19 need to undergo laboratory testing, he points out and adds:

“Rehabilitation programs may include various medical specialties (pulmonologists, cardiologists, neurologists, etc.), as well as an occupational physiologist, physiotherapist, nutritionist or psychologist, depending on the volume and severity of the symptoms to be rehabilitated.”

RES-EMI