Chronic fatigue, shortness of breath, cough, and tachycardia are the most common symptoms reported by patients who develop the syndrome. long COVID and are under the supervision of special clinics that operate in our country in hospitals and Health Centers. In some of these, the wait is lengthy, the most typical example being the Model Interdisciplinary Reference Center for Long-Term COVID Patients at Evangelismos Intensive Care Clinic 1, where, as stated by the Long-Term Patients’ Union in a recent letter to MOH leadership, the Consequences of COVID-19 (long-term COVID Greece), patients wait months for their first appointment.

“The clinic is open three times a week, in the morning hours, however, to be able to serve more patients, we often informally extend the hours,” notes on “K” Deputy Professor of Pulmonology at the Department of Pulmonology and Respiratory Insufficiency of the 1st EKPA Intensive Care Clinic at Evangelismos Hospital and head of the clinic, Friday Catsaunu. Over the past year and a half, this clinic has developed into a referral center of excellence for patients with persistent symptoms or new symptoms that appear three months after being infected with SARS-CoV-2 and last for at least two months without an apparent medical reason. , for example, this is also the WHO’s official “definition” for prolonged COVID. Without funding and with the additional work of hospital doctors.

125 patients

Fatigue, anorexia, weakness, bad mood, shortness of breath and persistent cough, even heart problems that appear after adventures with coronavirus, should be treated by specialists.

Last year, the clinic was visited by 125 patients from Attica and other regions of the country, as well as in cooperation with the long-term COVID-Greece. According to Ms. Katzaunou, these are people who were treated by their environment as “imaginative patients.” Perhaps they have already visited a medical institution, they were not diagnosed, but only treated with anxiolytics, since their symptoms are associated with stress. At Evangelismos Clinic, a team of doctors, consisting of pulmonologists, cardiologists, neurologists, endocrinologists, psychiatrists, otolaryngologists, dermatologists and other health professionals such as physiotherapists and occupational physiologists, uses a comprehensive approach and starts with clinical and laboratory investigation of possible other diseases. medical reasons and whether or not there is ongoing COVID syndrome until the patient is treated. Treatment depends on the diagnosis and can be medical therapy, physical, respiratory, and neurological rehabilitation.

“The most common symptoms reported by patients are chronic fatigue, anorexia, weakness, low mood, respiratory symptoms such as shortness of breath and chronic cough. To a lesser extent, we see patients with heart problems, with metabolic or other disorders, refers to “K” Professor of Pulmonology, Intensive Care, EKPA and Director of the 1st University Clinic at Sotiriya Hospital and responsible for the post-COVID clinic of this particular clinic, Antonia Kutsukou.

Regarding the duration of long-term COVID, Ms Kutsuko emphasizes that there is no specific model for how long symptoms can last. “We see in the post-COVID clinic people who contracted COVID-19 in the first phase of the pandemic.” As he notes, “Patients who develop these symptoms after a recent exposure to COVID-19 are advised to visit post-COVID clinics to find out the cause of the symptoms and provide appropriate assistance, if necessary, whether it involves medical treatment or rehabilitation.” He adds: “Covid continues to surprise us. The spread of the virus in the community is great and the world continues to be infected. We may not see severe cases with the same frequency, but some patients may develop severe disease. Everyone is now personally responsible for taking the necessary steps to protect themselves.”