what are the symptoms of long covid?

long covid still isn’t fully understood. but it’s very real, and can be devastating — both in terms of its physical and psychological symptoms, and the stigma that accompanies the illness.

what is long covid?

who gets long covid?

long covid can happen to anyone, health canada reports : adults, children, people who were hospitalized during their infection, even those with only very mild symptoms. and though it tends to be more common in people who had complications when they were sick, according to the cdc , it’s definitely not limited to this group. studies have also found that while those who has first and second doses of the covid vaccine can also experience long covid, the symptoms were less than for those who weren’t vaccinated.

people with multisystem inflammatory syndrome (mis) — a rare condition that causes inflammation in the body including the heart, lungs, brain, kidneys, skin, eyes and gastrointestinal organs — are also at risk of developing long covid.

symptoms that continue “long after” covid

a statistics canada survey released in october found that 14.8 per cent of canadians who reported a covid infection between january 2020 and august 2022 reported either symptoms can continued “long after” a covid infection, or symptoms that returned after they had otherwise recovered. that equates to 4.6 per cent of the adult canadian population, or 1.4 million people.

how is it diagnosed?

according to health canada, there’s no “universally agreed-upon” way to diagnose or treat long covid.   the canadian agency for drugs and technologies in health (cadth), which provides recommendations to canadian policy makers about health, suggests that canadian physicians follow the guidelines set by the cdc and the u.k. national institute for health and care excellence (nice). those guidelines recommend diagnosing “ based on symptoms, suspected previous covid-19 infection, and ruling out other potential causes of symptoms.” that means the hospitalization, or even a positive covid test, aren’t necessary for a long covid diagnosis.

how is long covid treated?

because the condition isn’t yet fully understood, long covid treatment involves a lot of trial and error, npr has reported.

“there is absolutely nothing anywhere that’s clear about long covid,” dr. steven deeks , an infectious disease specialist at the university of california, san francisco, told the outlet. “we have a guess at how frequently it happens. but right now, everyone’s in a data-free zone.”

“we don’t currently have a cure, but we’re treating symptoms and seeing improvements,” dr. angela cheung, a senior physician scientist with toronto’s university health network who helped establish 18 long covid clinics across canada, told maclean’s. “ if a patient has fatigue, resting and pacing themselves is important. if a patient is coughing — and their chest x-ray is normal — we give them steroid inhalers. for congestion, we give nasal sprays. long covid isn’t something that goes away in a day or two.”