With one in twenty people infected by the coronavirus still experiencing symptoms up to three months later, long COVID may become Australia’s most significant cause of long-term disability.
Long COVID is a potentially debilitating condition that follows the early phase of COVID infection. Affected people have described many symptoms, the most common being shortness of breath, fatigue, fever, headaches, and “brain fog”.
Clinicians are familiar with post-viral syndromes as they have been around for a while, but long COVID is something new. It’s likely a mixture of several conditions with varying underlying causes, but the biggest issue is that there is no diagnostic test for it.
Different time-frames are used to define it. According to the Australian Department of Health, a person experiences long COVID when their symptoms remain four weeks after they first had COVID.
The World Health Organization says long COVID is usually three months from infection, lasts at least two months, and cannot be explained by another diagnosis.
Australia’s health, welfare, and disability services are under-prepared. There is also not enough information about the people who have had long COVID.
Vaccinations not only help reduce the spread and severity of regular COVID but also long COVID; rates are even lower among those who are triple vaccinated.
While most people infected with COVID are able to get better without external help, about 5 percent get long COVID and need health care support in order to recover. While 5 percent does not seem like a large number, it means over a million people in Australia. This support can be intensive and take time.
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