Image by Masum Ali from Pixabay
Written by Tanya Terry
Did you know 10-30% of individuals with COVID develop some form of long-haul COVID? It may be startling, but it’s true.
Long-haul COVID symptoms individuals may experience may include fatigue, fast-beating or pounding heart (known as heart palpitations), difficulty breathing, shortness of breath, joint and muscle pain, weakness, dizziness, chest pain, memory problems, difficulty thinking or concentrating, anxiety, depression, insomnia, chest pain, memory problems, insomnia, spine or back pain, fever, heach aches, stomach pain and rash.
Long-haul COVID is also known as post-acute COVID-19, post-acute sequlae of SARS COV-2 infection (PASC), long-term effects of COVID and chronic COVID, as well as by its official name post-COVID conditions (PCC).
Long-haul COVID is more common in adults, than in children or adolescents.
Having long-haul COVID symptoms can families or households, work, schedules, and social and emotional well-being.
The good news is you can risk your risks of COVID long-haul.
People who receive the COVID-19 vaccine are less likely to develop long-haul COVID than those who do not.
Other potential risk factors for long-haul COVID may include the variant individuals are infect3ed with, the severity of the symptoms and experiencing multisystem inflammatory syndrome during or after COVID-19 illness.
In addition, some individuals affected by health inequities may be more likely to develop long-haul COVID, including people from racial or ethnic minority groups or those with disabilities.
There is no single test for long-haul COVID.
In addition, what makes this condition so difficult for many to endure is individuals may have symptoms that are hard to explain. In these cases, clinical evaluations and results of routing blood tests, chest x-rays and electrocardiograms may be normal.
People with long-haul COVID can seek care from a healthcare provider to come up with a personal medical management plan that can improve the quality of life, and are urged to seek support groups available to help patients and caregivers.
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Flint Center for Health Equity Brief, Adapted from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health
