Thought of the Day - December 2 - Update on "Long Hauling"

The idea of "Long Hauling", having significant symptoms and residual issues after a viral infection has cleared, is not new. I have several friends who had significant viral infections that were initially misdiagnosed and suffered for years afterwards. The difference in the case of COVID-19 is the number of people who find themselves in this boat - many of whom had fairly mild symptoms of the disease itself.

The main symptoms we are talking about a chronic fatigue, nerve/joint pain/body ache, tinnitus, heart palpitations, sensory impairments, shortness of breath, recurring fever, headaches, "brain fog", even COVID-toes, severe enough that the people cannot return to normal life (Thought of the Day - August 13 - COVID-19 Long Haulers). It looks like people with continuing symptoms can be grouped into a number of "camps":

• Post-Intensive Care syndrome - common if ventilators were employed;

• Post Viral Fatigue syndrome - tiredness and weakness;

• Long-Term COVID syndrome - people that have significant additional symptoms but few issues detectable by medical science;

• Permanent organ damage - clearly have organ damage (heart, lungs, kidneys and possibly brain);

• or multiples of the above.

I cannot find any detailed studies on Long Hauling being done in Canada, the only thing I have come across is the COVID Long Haulers Support Group Canada that boasts over 3,000 members. Studies in the UK estimate about 60,000 people are now "Long Hauling" in their country; this is about the same as the number of people who have died there from COVID-19. There is no reason to suspect that the percentage is much different in Canada. So this means there could be over 10,000 people right now in Canada who have tested negative for COVID (thus are considered Recovered Thought of the Day - May 20 - What Does Recovered Mean ) that are still too ill to work, or in some cases even care for themselves.

Just another reminder to avoid getting sick!

Cheers

Cliff