Helen from Central England has been ill since October 2020, and Nicky from the south-east county of Devon has had various symptoms for 18 months. She is so tired that she can no longer cope with her work duties. She is short of breath, unable to concentrate, and has memory problems. For a long time she didn’t know the cause of her suffering and thought it was an isolated case until she read an article in the Guardian about post-COVID syndrome. This prompted her to set up a Facebook group called the Long Covid Support Group. in which people with similar problems share their complaints and support each other.
Today, the group has more than 43,000 members, which corresponds to the growing number of diseases. There are no tests to identify the post-COVID syndrome so far, but the British National Statistics Office has published monthly estimates since April. Her July figures show that 950,000 people continue to feel unwell more than four weeks after the illness. And 400,000 of them have suffered from post-COVID syndrome for over a year. One of the members of the group, Claire Hasty, says: “It is not easy to live with post-COVID. I couldn’t work for more than a year, and now I work much less than before. We don’t live real life. “
Is there a cure?
In the UK, 62% of people are already fully vaccinated. But it is not known whether immunization protects against post-COVID. The issue is still under investigation. Immunologist Danny Altman explains: “It could be said that once someone has received both doses before they come across the virus, they will probably never get sick and there will be no post-COVID syndrome. And if we keep the number of cases low, we should not worry about post-COVID in the future. But we just can’t hope that as long as only young people become infected, or as many drive the disease without symptoms, no one will get post-COVID syndrome. “
In the UK, meanwhile, 89 post-COVID clinics have been set up, staffed by teams of specialists: pulmonologists, cardiologists, psychotherapists. The interest is great – you have to wait for months for admission. But it is not a guarantee that the complaints will go away. Danny Altman notes that this is actually a completely new disease for which there are no tests or medication. “I’m panicking on both sides: patients are desperate for help, and doctors see this, but they have no idea how they could help.”
What could be the reasons?
Altman attempts to unravel the syndrome in his lab. One of the current ones is that the virus remains in the body, for example in the intestines. Another theory suggests that the coronavirus burdens the immune system like Ebola. There are also suggestions that it damages organs and blood vessels. However, the most plausible thesis seems to be that COVID-19 causes a new autoimmune disease such as type 1 diabetes or rheumatoid arthritis. This thesis is supported by the fact that women are much more affected than men – women are generally more likely to suffer from autoimmune diseases. Altman intends to develop a blood test within 6-9 months to diagnose post-COVID. This test should be able to identify certain auto-antibodies, which are more in patients with post-COVID, and already on the basis of the test to form therapy.
How can opera singers help?
However, there is still a long way to go before patients can take advantage of the test. Until then, clinics can only try to alleviate certain syndromes, such as difficulty breathing. For this purpose, the clinics resort to unconventional methods – for six weeks, patients with post-COVID learn to breathe normally again with the help of … opera singers. Because from the treatment of other chronic diseases it is known that singing can stimulate the activity of the lungs. The program is also designed for people who can’t sing at all, but the participants are not expected to perform opera arias anyway – a set of lullabies has been prepared for them, which are not complicated.
Why do they call the symptoms psychological?
Due to the lack of diagnostic tests, doctors often do not believe in patients’ complaints and therefore define their suffering as psychological. This is exactly what happened to Helen: “I was constantly told that I had a fear neurosis. The head of one of the post-COVID clinics wrote in my diagnosis that my breathing problems were psychological. If I had enough energy, I would file a complaint. “Helen can no longer work. Like Nikki. Two-thirds of post-COVID patients fail to cope with their workdays. About 20 percent are too ill to work. Even if they don’t lose their jobs, they lose at least part of their identity.
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