Number of Long Covid patients

[Sundiamond]

Hi

I have been reading about 'Long Covid' and wanted to get an idea of how many covid sufferers in the UK could be classified as long haul? I can't find it anywhere.

Thanks

I'm guessing it's not known for certain yet?
I agree it would be good to have an idea but it's still so new at this stage. There's a lot of unknowns. All we can do is exercise caution until we know more.

I don’t think anyone knows. I am just one, and my GP says her caseload is crazily busy with patient after patient saying all the same things as me. I’m in an area with relatively low cases, too.

This is anecdotal, of course, but I know of a good few others in my position.

It’s horrible. It better not be forever because it’s life changing. They need to focus as much on this as the death rate, in my opinion.

Public Health England published this today:

"Around 10% of mild coronovirus (COVID-19) cases who were not admitted to hospital have reported symptoms lasting more than 4 weeks. A number of hospitalised cases reported continuing symptoms for 8 or more weeks following discharge.

Persistent health problems reported following acute COVID-19 disease include:

respiratory symptoms and conditions such as chronic cough, shortness of breath, lung inflammation and fibrosis, and pulmonary vascular disease
cardiovascular symptoms and disease such as chest tightness, acute myocarditis and heart failure
protracted loss or change of smell and taste
mental health problems including depression, anxiety and cognitive difficulties
inflammatory disorders such as myalgia, multisystem inflammatory syndrome, Guillain-Barre syndrome, or neuralgic amyotrophy
gastrointestinal disturbance with diarrhoea
continuing headaches
fatigue, weakness and sleeplessness
liver and kidney dysfunction
clotting disorders and thrombosis
lymphadenopathy
skin rashes
Research to evaluate the long-term health and psychosocial effects of COVID-19 is continuing. Major studies include the Post-Hospitalisation COVID-19 study (PHOSP-COVID) in the UK and the International Severe Acute Respiratory and emerging Infection Consortium (ISARIC) global COVID-19 long-term follow-up study.

Patients recovering from COVID-19 infection should speak to their GP about local care pathways for support and assessment of any long-term symptoms or health problems. Healthcare providers can also refer patients to the online COVID recovery programme.

The NHS has produced guidance for primary care and community health services to meet the immediate and longer-term care needs of patients discharged following an acute episode of COVID-19."

www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-long-term-health-effects/covid-19-long-term-health-effects

Also from this article:

"Up to 60,000 people in the UK may have been suffering from “long Covid” for more than three months, unable to get the care they need to recover from prolonged and debilitating symptoms.

Tim Spector, a professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London who runs the app-based Covid symptom study, said around 300,000 people had reported symptoms lasting for more than a month.

A minority have been suffering for longer; up to 60,000 people have reported having symptoms for more than three months."

(Some caution required with these numbers obviously for various reasons, eg: this study relies on people self-reporting symptoms).

Clicky link for full article :
www.theguardian.com/society/2020/sep/08/60000-may-have-long-covid-for-more-than-three-months-uk-study?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Wow, that's a lot of people. I'm so sorry @musicposy, it sounds horrendous

While we have no idea of the numbers it doesn't seem unreasonable that a proportion will have mid- to long-lasting effects from Covid like any virus.

I couldn't work properly for 12 weeks after a bout of flu when otherwise fit and well in my 20s, and I wasn't quite right for a good year after. I know a couple of people who are still suffering effects from the 2017 flu.

My hope is that at last we will start looking seriously into how infections can leave people in the longer term and try to find some effective treatments.

@amicissimma

While we have no idea of the numbers it doesn't seem unreasonable that a proportion will have mid- to long-lasting effects from Covid like any virus.

I couldn't work properly for 12 weeks after a bout of flu when otherwise fit and well in my 20s, and I wasn't quite right for a good year after. I know a couple of people who are still suffering effects from the 2017 flu.

My hope is that at last we will start looking seriously into how infections can leave people in the longer term and try to find some effective treatments.

This (having myself had lung problems which I am pretty sure were traceable to a nasty dose of swine flu during the2009 epidemic).

Research from hospitals in Innsbruck, Zams and Münster, which treated many of the patients from the early outbreak in the Tyrol, suggests that the damage may improve over time.

I hope that's true for all post-viral syndrome.

Very helpful, @CoffeeandCroissant

“ While we have no idea of the numbers it doesn't seem unreasonable that a proportion will have mid- to long-lasting effects from Covid like any virus. ”

This. I would be interested in whether Covid is more or less likely than other viruses to have longer term effects, but the fact that a virus might have long term serious and/or debilitating effects isn’t news to me. I know people who have had eg myocarditis, Bell’s palsy, a squint, or lifelong immunity problems caused by other viruses. This doesn’t mean it should be ignored or minimised, just that we shouldn’t panic about this being new and unknown and unique to Covid

I would also like to know if that 10% figure of mild cases is in anyway comparable to flu.

It sounds a lot to me!

I read somewhere it is 10% symptoms lasting longer than 3 weeks, and around 1 in 200 are lasting months. The two are getting thrown together atm which doesn't help. Also I think we need to remember that it is whatever % of symptomatic cases. According to this 60% are asymptomatic atm.

And those are figures for people seeing doctors. My brother had COVID (confirmed after an antibody test and he’s donated some plasma). He didn’t see a GP or the NHS when he was ill. But he was sick- couldn’t get out of bed for nearly a fortnight and for nearly 10 weeks after was bone tired and barely able to function. This was in early April so he’s better now. I suspect the real number is higher than 60,000. (Brother is 35 and super fit).

Thanks for the info and links. I am as worried about Long Covid as the mortality now. It's not something you can insure yourself against either, is it?

@BlueTuesday20

Thanks for the info and links. I am as worried about Long Covid as the mortality now. It's not something you can insure yourself against either, is it?

I really worry about not being able to work

@BlueTuesday20

Thanks for the info and links. I am as worried about Long Covid as the mortality now. It's not something you can insure yourself against either, is it?

Please don't worry. It can happen, and nobody should minimise that. But (a) it in a very slim chance right now that you will get Covid, and an even slimmer chance that you will get the post-viral elements and (b) if you weren't worried about it before, when there was just as much chance of getting it after many other viruses, there's little point worrying about it now.

From personal experience... I had glandular fever in my early 20's (a very long time ago!) and it took me the best part of a year to shake off the post viral element. In 2009 I had Swine Flu - the flu was relatively mild, but I never quite got over it and ended up, after six months of trying to shake the symptoms, with pneumonia! I had Covid. For about two weeks I have never, ever, been that sick in my life. Then I was fine and have been ever since. Nobody can predict what virus they might get, nor whether one might be one of the few that take longer to recover or get some form of post viral syndrome. Worrying about something that is extremely unlikely to happen to you is more likely to make you ill!

Exactly chance.

Very sensible advice @Moondust001

The 'long covid' thing really really annoys me - suffering long term effects after an infection is not new, as others have said, and claiming some mysterious 'long covid' syndrome is total nonsense. I still suffer some minor effects of having measles when I was a toddler. It isn't 'long measles' because such a thing doesn't exist.

As another poster says, one positive thing may be that post-viral effects will be taken seriously and investigated - they're usually ignored or treated as inevitable, nothing that can be helped.

What do people think of this?

www.news-medical.net/news/20200618/Blood-types-and-COVID-19-risk-confirmed.aspx

@Sundiamond

Anything that helps with working out who may get sickest is good news!

It’s an article from June, I think I remember seeing it discussed on here. It’s useful to know, but as with all risk factors you won’t know for sure how you personally might be affected by any virus. I have no idea how blood type affects other health outcomes, I’m sure it does though.

I have no idea of my blood group - it made me want to know (for all sorts of reasons). So I'm going to do a home test.

The 'long covid' thing really really annoys me - suffering long term effects after an infection is not new, as others have said, and claiming some mysterious 'long covid' syndrome is total nonsense. I still suffer some minor effects of having measles when I was a toddler. It isn't 'long measles' because such a thing doesn't exist.

Just listening to Tim Spector on the news explaining why long covid is not like other post-viral things and that the people suffering have been ignored too long.

Also he explained the numbers were higher for post-covid issues than other illnesses, although didn't provide details.

Hopefully post-covid won't be dismissed for as long as CFS etc. were.

I had a phone consultation with my GP a couple of weeks ago. Luckily, he is a GP trainer attached to a medical school so he is very clued up. He was well aware of long covid, and when I asked him about numbers in my part of the world (West Midlands, so we had loads of cases), he said that what I was describing was depressingly familiar and he's expecting more people to be affected in autumn and winter when cases start to rise again.

I really think that due attention needs to be paid to long covid, as in theory we could end up with thousands of people nationwide with issues that could stop them working for weeks or months. That isn't going to be very good for the economy, unless the government is planning on having us all put down!