In an international study on long Covidunder the umbrella of the Hellenic Institute for the Study of Sepsis, the “Sotaria” Hospital participates, the first center in the country where interventional treatment with anti-inflammatory drugs was started.
“We are the first center in Greece to start the first interventional treatment with an anti-inflammatory drug in patients with long Covid, who are selected according to strict criteria,” says the pathologist-infectious disease specialist, deputy EKPA professor at the 3rd University Pathology Clinic of the “I Sotiria” hospital and scientific manager of the Post-Covid Clinic, Garifalia Poulakou.
“Our practice is participating in the international multicenter study that is being carried out under the umbrella of the Hellenic Institute for the Study of Sepsis with Evangelos Giamarellos Bourboulis as the main researcher. This is a study that has been submitted to the EU and the EOF and has been licensed,” he adds.
As Mrs. Poulakou explains, the patients participating in the study are checked for findings in the lung and for the presence of inflammation.
“When they meet these criteria they enter the study, which has been started by our team for about two months and is expected to last more than a year. More than 20 patients have joined and others from other centers in Greece and abroad will gradually join.
So far there is no approved treatment for long Covid, as all treatments are supportive, Ms. Poulakou emphasizes, while expressing the belief and hope that this large international study will have successful results.
Long Covid does not presuppose severe illness
The Post Covid Clinic of “Sotiria” is considered a center of reference, as it was the first to open in the coronavirus pandemic and has been operating since May 2020, with a continuous flow of patients since then.
The majority of these, as Ms. Poulakou says, are not people who have gone through hospitalization, as one might expect, but suffer from long-term symptoms, while they were slightly ill at home.
“We have exceeded 3,000 patients since the beginning of the pandemic and we are consistently monitoring around 200 on a rolling basis, because some of them have been cured or some are coming in for a standard recheck.”
The post-Covid clinics are expected to remain, as for some patients it takes months or years to get rid of the symptoms.
Regarding the symptoms of the latest Omicron variant and what differences there are in relation to the previous variants, Mrs. Poulakou notes: “It seems that it causes a little less long Covid, than the previous ones, but the percentages are not negligible. According to recently published studies from China, 6 to 12 months after illness, 55% of people who were mildly ill and did not require hospitalization, have long Covid symptoms.
The symptoms, he says, are mainly fatigue, memory and mood disorders, thinking disorders, chest pain and cough.
“In the previous variants, respiratory symptoms were more common. Of course, there are many symptoms that constitute what today we call long Covid and they now exceed 200” he concludes.
The importance of vaccination
“Most studies have shown that the vaccination we insist on, on the one hand, prevents very bad results, i.e. serious illness, admission to the hospital or ICU, and on the other hand, it also reduces long Covid” notes Ms. Poulakou and adds:
“There have also been studies that show that someone who is ill, but stays at home, has the same chance of getting long Covid as someone else who was hospitalized.”
It is noted that a recent American study in which researchers from 17 health systems in the USA participated showed that vaccination in children does not simply reduce the risk of severe acute disease, but is a protective shield for long Covid.
“As at the beginning of the pandemic, so now, the severity of the disease does not matter if someone will develop long-term symptoms. Also, another important parameter in the prevention of long Covid, is the timely reception of antivirals according to recent data”, says the distinguished infectious disease specialist.
Long-term flu symptoms
Regarding the long-term symptoms of flu which are recently referred to as long flu, Ms. Poulakou comments:
“With the pandemic flu of 1920, a symptom had appeared, which was long-lasting and was called lethargic encephalopathy. This is now history. However, with the flu we have a chronicity of symptoms. However, they do not have so much to do with the mental sphere, cognitive functions, sleep, etc. as with Covid-19, but with the respiratory system. A large study, which was published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases recently and includes pre-pandemic data on the flu, has changed the scene a bit in the last 1-2 months, as a result of which the term long flu has started to circulate.
“According to the study”, Mrs. Poulakou continues, “it seems that the flu also greatly affects those who are sick and hospitalized, with an increase in mortality, readmissions, and a reduction in the quality of life. People who already have pulmonary problems are at risk from the flu, and this can cost them a long-term condition (with symptoms such as cough, shortness of breath and worsening of the pre-existing lung disease), which if we want to call it long flu”.
As for the time period that determines the long-term appearance of the flu, Ms. Poulakou says: “After 3 months always. But it is not the flu as such, but its complications and the dysregulation of the underlying disease.”
“The phenomenon as he clarifies is not new. It’s been observed for years, it’s just been published in the last few months and now we’ve gained the sensitivity and we’ve recognized it now using what we’ve learned from the coronavirus pandemic as a guide.”
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