It's nice to believe that the SARS-CoV-2 virus is gone forever but with each passing week the World Health Organization (WHO) coronavirus dashboard records millions of new confirmed cases of COVID-19.
And if COVID is still among the people, so will the prolonged COVID.
According to the WHO, between 10 and 20 percent of COVID-19 survivors suffer persistent symptoms such as fatigue, breathing difficulties, joint pain, decreased taste or smell, and problems concentrating.
Recently, Dr. Anthony Fauci, now former chief medical advisor to US President Joe Biden, declared that long COVID is a “treacherous public health emergency.”
A study published by Israel's Maccabi health service found that among adults who suffered from COVID-19, one in three have persistent health deficits, such as memory loss and muscle pain. Even a semester later.
Meanwhile, specialists in Israel researching how to prevent and treat COVID found that vaccines can help people avoid it and that treatments with hyperbaric oxygen, exercise therapy, or a nutraceutical supplement can help stop it.
Additionally, the vaccine can prevent long COVID while oxygen could help cure it.
“We still see every day in hospitals and clinics, post-Covid patients who complain of symptoms even months or a year or more after recovering from the disease,” said Dr. Gabriel Izbicki, director of the Pulmonary Institute at the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem.
According to Izbicki, this is a minority of COVID patients but “it is scary because there is no way to know who will be affected by a prolonged version.”
Another study by pulmonologists at Hadassah University Medical Center found that although severe COVID-19 increases the risk of long-lasting respiratory, cardiac or neurological deterioration, nonspecific symptoms such as shortness of breath and fatigue are just as common later when the illness is lighter.
How vaccination can help
Epidemiologist Michael Edelstein of Bar-Ilan University said there is growing consensus that vaccines can help prevent long COVID.
Their research showed that people who had previously received at least two doses of the Pfizer vaccine reported 62 percent less fatigue, 50 percent less headache, 62 percent less limb weakness and 66 percent less muscle pain after COVID-19 compared to those who were not inoculated.
Thus, the vaccine can prevent long COVID while oxygen could help cure it
Different current studies by Edelstein focus on, as he himself said, “showing that long COVID significantly affects people's well-being and quality of life and that it lasts a long time.”
Edelstein told ISRAEL21c en Español that he measured the effect of prolonged COVID-19 symptoms on subjective well-being (SWB) in 2.295 study participants at three to six months, six to 12 months, and 12 to 18 months later. of the infection.
“The results suggest that the largest and most sustained changes in BS come from non-specific symptoms, including fatigue, confusion/lack of concentration and sleep disorders,” said the scientist.
Specific symptoms such as muscle weakness and pain had a less profound and more temporary effect on BS.
“Taking a similar approach for other symptoms and following people over time to describe trends in BS changes attributable to specific symptoms will help understand the post-acute phase of COVID-19 and how it should be better defined and managed.” ”explained Edelstein.
Long COVID treatment
Israel's hospitals opened some of the world's first post-COVID clinics, where treatment depends on symptoms and severity.
Researchers from Ariel University and Sheba Medical Center published a study suggesting that autoimmune dysfunction may play an important role in long-term COVID-19 symptoms such as chronic fatigue, cognitive impairment and mood-related disorders, and many more .
Furthermore, the scientists described that some patients benefit from immunomodulatory and immunosuppressive therapy but that exercise treatment may be safer and more effective because it stabilizes the autonomic nervous system.
Some time ago, specialists from Tel Aviv University collaborated with a long COVID clinic in Florida, USA, to formulate a unique nutraceutical supplement to treat typical long-term symptoms.
The results of their clinical trial revealed an improvement in symptom severity in 51 patients, especially mental confusion and fatigue after two weeks of daily dosing, and an even greater improvement after four weeks of daily dosing.
For more severe patients with other severe or post-COVID lung symptoms, Izbicki prescribes steroids to reduce inflammation.
For his part, Dr. Fares Darawshy, a Hadassah pulmonologist, agreed that the most useful treatment in these cases is respiratory, physical or cognitive therapy.
Intensive hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO) is another treatment option, although less accessible today.
Last July, research published by the Sagol Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Research at Shamir Medical Center and Tel Aviv University reported that HBO critically improved the condition of 37 post-COVID patients compared to a control group .
Under the supervision of the director of the Sagol Center, Dr. Shai Efrati, these patients received 40 HBO treatments, five sessions per week for two months.
“The study revealed that hyperbaric oxygen can induce structural and functional repair of damaged regions of the brain and improve the cognitive, behavioral and emotional function of unfortunate patients suffering from post-COVID-19 conditions,” said Efrati.
Prevention is the best medicine
As researchers in Israel and elsewhere around the world try to understand more about why COVID-19 often causes persistent symptoms, Izbicki cautioned that the best protection against long COVID is to avoid getting infected in the first place.
“Even though it's not pleasant, we should continue to take precautions and wear masks indoors to protect ourselves, our parents and grandparents,” Izbicki said.
The specialist added that people can remain COVID-positive for a long time, even weeks after recovery.
And anyone can be infected more than once. “We can live a more or less normal life, but we just have to be a little more careful,” she concluded.
Source: ISRAEL21c