- About one-third of COVID-19 survivors suffer from a variety of symptoms long after they were first infected.
- Long-term COVID-19 appears to be driven by a coronavirus persisting in the body, causing prolonged infection.
- The current treatment approach is based mainly on rehabilitation therapy.
Several months after the COVID-19 pandemic started, I began seeing COVID-19 survivors who suffered from a variety of symptoms long after they were first infected. They mainly complained about debilitating fatigue, brain fog, memory problems, difficulty concentrating, difficulty completing tasks, muscle pains, etc. Some of them were highly functioning individuals who were desperate to return to their jobs. I knew they were not malingering. They completed the neuropsychological evaluation, which showed various degrees of cognitive problems.
The clinical community first met the long-term COVID-19 (LTC) cluster of symptoms with skepticism. The patients were told or made to believe it was “in their head.” There has been little research on long-term COVID-19 and no actual treatment solutions for a long time. However, this is changing, and we are getting more research on that subject.