10:42 a.m.: The federal government is funding research on long-term corona consequences with five million euros
The Federal Ministry of Research wants to provide five million euros to promote research into the long-term consequences of a corona infection. Department head Anja Karliczek (CDU) pointed out in Berlin that around ten percent of those infected suffered from symptoms, some of them severe, weeks and months after surviving the acute infection. Because of the novelty of the disease, there was still a lack of sound scientific knowledge about the long-term effects.
“It is all the more important to gain scientific knowledge in order to be able to treat the affected patients in the best possible way and to support them in their recovery,” explained Karliczek.
In Germany, around 3.5 million people have now survived a Covid 19 infection. Since long-term consequences occur in around ten percent of those infected, around 350,000 people would be affected by the so-called long Covid symptoms.
The Ministry of Research names extreme exhaustion, headaches, poor concentration, shortness of breath and the loss of the sense of smell and taste as the most common late symptoms. According to the ministry, there is so far only “insufficient knowledge” about these symptoms.
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