When the symptoms of Covid-19 remain and do not disappear, more than three months following infection. This is what is called the long Covid. Patients follow one another in the infectious diseases department of the Nice University Hospital. Already more than 200 patients have gone through this service.
Each time Dr. David Chirio finds similar but very varied symptoms. “We can see palpitations, chest pain, difficulty breathing. It can also be in the cognitive, cerebral sphere with a slowing of ideas, a “cognitive fog” but also the persistence of smell disorders, aches and especially fatigue”describes the doctor.
Rehabilitation and support to treat covid long
There is no no drug treatment to date to cure the covid long. So we favor rehabilitation and support. “We are going to retrain people for physical activity since there is a mismatch that is done on breathing on the heart rate which can be readjusted with physio. We are doing olfactory rehabilitation with our ENT specialists. This can also be a training at the level of memory or attention when it sins”details David Chirio. Many treatments are being tried.
“We really have patients from the first and second wave in the majority” – David Chirio
Another question that Dr. David Chirio asks is whether some variants of covid-19 cause more long covid than others. “Personally, I haven’t had a lot of patients in the consultation in recent waves. We have the impression that the sequence of having had a vaccination and then a covid infection is less conducive to generating covid long behind. We really the patients of the first and second wave in majority who are rather represented”explains the doctor. A still largely unknown disease therefore but on which doctors continue to learn every day.