Health, News | Still struggling after last year’s covid wave: Sickness benefits for Gunhild will soon end

– I am 99 per cent sure that this is due to covid-19. That’s when it started and I see no other explanation.

That’s what mother of three Gunhild Marie Ersland (40) says.

Since she was infected by covid-19 in February last year, she has struggled to return to everyday life with family life and a full-time job.

Almost a year later, she is still on sick leave, and has found herself having to apply for employment verification allowance from Nav.

Have created an association

The renowned scientific journal Nature recently published a review of the research that has been done on the late effects of covid infection.

There, it is estimated that ten percent of those infected develop the condition, and that a “significant proportion” of these do not return to work.

Brita Scheid Bjørnstad is chairman of the board of the Norwegian Covid Association, which was started this year.

– People experience not being heard or believed, and there is no help. Some of those who have been given the opportunity to be in rehabilitation have experienced getting worse because the scheme is not adapted to them, says Bjørnstad.

Within a few weeks, the association has gained 260 members. They encourage the authorities to survey the extent of long covid ailments through the campaign #telloss.

– Society has an idea that this does not exist. Without us being able to establish how many people this applies to, it is difficult to gain traction, says Bjørnstad.

– The small offer that has been for long-term covid patients is being de-prioritised now that budgets are getting tighter. They have to find out how many people this applies to and what problems they have, says Bjørnstad.

Heart palpitations and nausea

The whole family in the detached house by Bjørnafjorden was infected during the corona wave last winter.

– It was like a strong flu. I didn’t have a fever, but I was having trouble breathing. I worked a bit in my home office and took a few days off, says Gunhild Ersland.

When she was back at work again as a consulting engineer, she noticed an unusual heartbeat.

– I wasn’t violently ill then, but I was hanging around and noticed that I wasn’t well. I had both nausea and heart palpitations that came and went. I was breathing, but it felt like I wasn’t getting enough air.

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Ended up at Solli DPS

Ersland was sick again, rested often and waited to get in better shape.

– I went like this for a while before I decided to try to work again. I had barely said that before my body signaled that it disagreed. I had palpitations, couldn’t sleep and experienced that my body was on a sort of alarm alert, she says.

The GP believed that she had anxiety and exhaustion after the viral infection, and referred her to Solli DPS.

She was given medication to reduce her anxiety and make it easier to sleep.

“Feeling unwell after covid illness in February. Now characterized by nausea, worries, anxiety, functional decline in everyday life, stress, inner turmoil and palpitations,” the journal says.

Afterwards, Erland was encouraged to seek further follow-up at Bergen municipality’s Kompani Covid, but she was refused because she has a residential address in Bjørnafjorden.

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Strong increase

According to Nav, the number of people with work clearance allowance and corona-related diagnoses has never been higher than now.

At the end of last year, this applied to 236 people. This is an increase from 96 people at the same time last year.

Of these, 86 per cent received sickness benefit in advance, statistics BA has obtained access to show.

The Norwegian Institute of Public Health has estimated that approximately 80 percent of Norwegian citizens have been infected with the corona virus at least once.

According to research manager Signe Flottorp at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, it is uncertain how many of these suffer from late effects.

– If we were to believe the estimate from Nature, it would mean that more than 420,000 residents in Norway would struggle with late effects and a significant proportion of these would not return to work. Fortunately, it’s not that bad, she says.

FHI is working on mapping the scope.

– NAV has previously reported that there was an increase in doctor-reported long-term sick leave during the pandemic. We are trying to find out how many of these sick reports may apply to people who have late effects after covid-19.

In October 2022, the Norwegian Directorate of Health had a meeting with an external resource group to discuss the offer for patients with late sequelae.

– The GPs reported that they did not have many patients with late sequelae who needed follow-up or rehabilitation. At the same time, we know that many people feel alone and experience a lack of recognition for the challenges that late consequences can bring.

Fearing another bang

The head of the Corona Study at Oslo University Hospital, Arne Søraas, believes long covid will become the biggest new chronic disease this decade.

The mother of three in Bjørnafjorden is looking forward to the future, despite the fact that it is approaching a year since the problems started.

– The anxiety symptoms subsided after a while, but I was still left with complaints that could not be related to anxiety, such as breathing problems, heartburn and nausea after activity, she says.

She is nevertheless optimistic and hopes to step it up a bit at work in the future.

– It has steadily improved, but I feel that I have little to go on, and am afraid of pushing myself too hard. I’m hoping that I’m getting better now, but I won’t be in full-time work by the end of the sick pay period.