Malou is 27 years old, was working as a psychologist and got corona last October. She got covid as a result of the infection. Long-term complaints. Hundreds of people in Amsterdam struggle with these complaints.
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From cycling every day, working 36 hours and going to the gym, to having to sit in the shower so as not to pass out. It’s an understatement to say that the effects of lung covid have turned Malou’s life upside down.
“I was rarely still, I was always fit and active and now I can work a maximum of two hours a week,” says Malou in her living room. “I can ride an electric bike for a maximum of ten minutes and I’m practicing to be able to walk further than 200 meters. If I walk more I get a relapse.”
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“It’s a whole range of complaints, so that makes it difficult to say exactly what lung covid is.”
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Much is still unknown about lung covid and its causes. 10 to 20 percent of corona patients continue to suffer from long-term complaints one month after being infected with the corona virus. “Many people do not know enough about lung covid,” says GGD infectious diseases doctor Ashis Brahma.
It is also unclear to many Amsterdammers when exactly you have long covid. Ashis Brahma explains. “If after a period of three months you still have two months of complaints. Those complaints can be: no longer smelling, confusion, no good taste. But also shortness of breath, you are tired or have concentration problems. It is a whole range of complaints, so That makes it hard to say exactly what lung covid is.”
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Ashis Brahma, infectious diseases doctor GGD
“I am confident that I will eventually be able to do a lot more”
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Even if you have had a mild covid, you can get lung covid,” says Brahma. “If you have been in the ICU, there is a good chance, because then you have of course been disabled for a while and you have been on a ventilator for a long time and get your lungs are bothering you. You may see it more often in people who have gone through it seriously, but you can also see it if you have had very mild complaints.”
Even though she has never been in hospital with corona, Malou also has long covid. “I had a bad flu, but I’ve never been short of breath and didn’t have to go to the hospital,” she says. “That lasted two weeks, but what was especially striking is that I did not recover after that. I kept trying to pick up my life, but kept getting sick again.”
But despite everything, Malou keeps hope. “Now that I haven’t had a relapse for two months and I am taking small steps forward, I notice that I am getting more and more freedom back. I am confident that I will eventually be able to do a lot more again. I just hope to be able to be my active self again are.”
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Long Covid does not stand for the lungs, but for the word long
