New Delhi: About 200 million covid 19 cases got reported , the WHO on Wednesday said that "it was deeply concerned by the unknown numbers who may still be suffering with Long Covid." The World Health Organization asked people struggling with the post affects to seek medical help. Long Covid remained one of the most mysterious aspects of the pandemic. Maria Van Kerkhove, the UN health agency's Covid-19 technical lead, told a press conference that "this post-Covid syndrome, or Long Covid, is something that WHO is deeply concerned about." She said that the WHO was making sure that they have recognition of it, because this is real. "We don't know for how long these effects last and we're even working on a case definition to better understand and describe what this post-Covid syndrome is," said Van Kerkhove. She added that the WHO was working to have better rehabilitation programmes for Long Covid sufferers plus broader research to gain a better understanding of what the syndrome is and how it can be managed A series of seminars aimed at expanding understanding of post-Covid conditions, this year hearing not only from scientists and doctors but also directly from sufferers themselves. It is not totally know that why people after coming through the acute phase, struggle to recover and suffer ongoing symptoms including shortness of breath, extreme fatigue and brain fog as well as cardiac and neurological disorders. "There had been more than 200 reported symptoms", according to the organisation's long covid effords led by Janet Diaz, the clinical care in the WHO's emergencies programme. They include chest pain, tingling and rashes, she told a WHO live social media session on Tuesday. Diaz said some patients had symptoms that dragged on from the acute phase; others got better and then relapsed, with conditions that could come and go; while others had symptoms that only appeared after recovering from the acute phase. Studies can only go back as far as the first patients to recover from Covid-19, which first emerged in China in December 2019. Diaz added that some people seemed to have post-Covid conditions for three months, and others up to six months. "We are concerned there may be a small proportion that go on to nine months -- and to longer than that," said Diaz. It was not yet fully understood what caused the post-viral symptoms, with various hypotheses including neurological problems, the immune response to the infection, and the virus persisting in some organs, said the US expert. Van Kerkhove said: "We advise anyone who is suffering from the long-term effects to seek help."
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