A recent report from Statistics Canada estimates that 3.5 million Canadians, or 11.7 per cent of the adult population, report “long-term symptoms” lasting at least three months.
TORONTO — Four years ago, Sonja Mally was a busy tattoo artist with a photographic memory and a penchant for long hikes.
These days, the 38-year-old Toronto woman considers a good day to be when she can “do some very basic tasks,” like painting a little picture or gathering the energy to walk around the city.
“It’s hard when you can be doing well one day and then the next day have to explain to someone why you can’t find the words to complete a sentence,” Marie said.
Debilitating symptoms from prolonged COVID-19 put an end to the career she loved and forced her to receive disability benefits from the Ontario government, which she supplemented with part-time office work. ing.
Marie’s world changed in March 2020. That was when she developed what she thought was a mild cold. She said, “There was nothing that she thought wouldn’t affect her.”
“What was shocking to me was what happened next.”
The coronavirus infection caused respiratory illness and extreme fatigue. Later, during a neurology exam, he developed more frightening symptoms, including brain fog that made him unable to draw a clock and “unbearable pain” that “felt like his blood vessels were on fire.”
Murray said the biggest difference between now and then is that the medical community recognizes that the long-standing coronavirus is real.
“I don’t have to fight with doctors trying to convince them that this disease that I have exists.”
According to a recent report from Statistics Canada, as of June 2023, 3.5 million people in Canada, representing 11.7 per cent of the adult population, reported experiencing “long-term symptoms” lasting at least three months after contracting the novel coronavirus. It is estimated that there are.
Many meet the World Health Organization’s definition of long-term COVID-19 disease (also known as post-COVID-19 symptoms). This is the “continuation or development of new symptoms three months after the initial SARS-CoV-2 infection and the duration of these symptoms for at least an extended period of time.” Two months passed without any other explanation. ”
According to the StatCan report, 42 per cent of people in Canada who reported ongoing symptoms have had symptoms for more than a year, and many have not resolved their symptoms.
But Canadian doctors and scientists want long-term COVID-19 patients to know that research is accelerating.
The Long COVID Web, a research network of nearly 600 health-care workers, scientists and patients across Canada, aims to go beyond helping manage symptoms to finding “solutions to eliminate long-term COVID-19.” Dr. Angela Chan said. She is a network leader and a senior physician-scientist at the University Health Network in Toronto.
Long-term COVID-19 infections affect different systems in the body, and the most common symptoms include fatigue, brain fog, cardiovascular problems and shortness of breath, Chan said.
Cheung has seen many patients improve, with “quite a few” even returning to their pre-COVID-19 “baseline” function.
“I don’t know why some people can get back to baseline and others can’t, but it’s certainly something we need to understand more about,” she says.
Susie Golding of Cambridge, Ont., who was infected around the same time as Marie in 2020, said she had similar life-altering symptoms and was barely able to survive.
She gradually recovered enough to run a flower shop and take care of her 15-year-old son, but she still suffers from brain fog.
“I think I’ve reached a plateau in my recovery,” said Golding, 56.
“I have a lot of trouble finding words and brain stamina. There’s only so much I can do.”
A few months after becoming ill, Golding started a Facebook group called COVID Long-Haulers Support Group Canada. Three and a half years later, the number of members has grown to nearly 20,000.
“It really kills me when people come to our group and say they didn’t know (that this would happen to them). It’s sad,” she said.
Golding said many long-term COVID-19 patients live in fear of being reinfected with COVID-19 or other viruses. Reinfection could wipe out all the recovery gains you’ve made.
“It’s as if the world has forgotten about COVID-19 and moved on, and all the safety measures to keep people safe are gone,” she said.
“So we need to navigate the world in the best possible way, keeping safety parameters in mind.”
Last year, Marie saw a glimmer of hope: “I was finally able to walk and go on little hikes again…I was just functioning at a more normal level.”
But despite taking precautions like wearing a mask, she only enjoyed it for a few months before catching a cold.
“I lost all the progress I had made and was unable to do anything in bed for months,” she said. “I’m still trying to recover from that situation.”
Researchers say one dangerous misconception has long been that COVID-19 infections only occurred in people infected early in the pandemic.
Chan said the Omicron variant may pose a lower risk of long-term illness from the coronavirus than previous alpha and delta variants, but because so many people have been infected with Omicron, the risk remains low. said it remains large.
“This variant can and does cause Long coronavirus,” said Dr. Jim Russell, a professor of medicine at the University of British Columbia and another researcher on the Long coronavirus web.
Russell said there is growing evidence that vaccination not only prevents death and hospitalization, but also protects against long-term COVID-19 infection.
Like Chan, Russell is hopeful that by understanding the root cause, we can find a way to treat lingering coronavirus infections.
“I can’t help but believe that we will see breakthroughs within the next year between Europe, the United States, Australia and Canada,” he said.
One of the main theories Russell is researching is excessive or persistent inflammation.
“When you get infected, your body mounts an inflammatory response to kill the virus…and you need that inflammatory response to recover,” Russell said.
“(But) unfortunately, this inflammation does not subside in some people and can last for months,” possibly damaging organs such as the lungs and brain and leading to long-term coronavirus symptoms. He said that it was high.
Researchers also believe that dysregulation of the immune system, disruption of the gut microbiome, damage to endothelial cells in organs, and abnormal persistence of the virus in the body are likely causes of prolonged COVID-19 infection. We are considering this as a theory.
Mr Golding, who sat on LongCoronaweb’s patient advisory group, said these were encouraging developments for long-term COVID-19 patients.
“Don’t give up hope yet,” she said.
“When research is just beginning, there will be interventions that will help people.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 15, 2023.
Canadian Press health coverage is supported through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
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