Post-COVID Symptoms and Effects on Global Healthcare
February 18, 2021
As thousands of people continue their fight against COVID-19, healthcare professionals shed some light on what many patients and experts have come to know as 'long COVID'. A recent article by UN News titled "
Constellation' of Post-COVID Symptoms Will Impact Global Healthcare, Says WHO" expands on the most relevant complications people go through after suffering the worst effects of COVID-19. Dr. Janet Diaz, Team Lead, Health Care Readiness at WHO, provides insight into these issues while clarifying that post-COVID complications manifest differently for each patient, often taking between one to six months for symptoms to become apparent.
Diaz describes a host of mental and physical problems that take root after a person has recovered from COVID to the point that many patients have been unable to return to work. While the condition is associated with patients that required ICU treatment for COVID-19, the symptoms have also been reported by individuals that suffered the disease under milder circumstances.
According to Diaz, "fatigue, exhaustion and post-exertional malaise, cognitive dysfunction," along with what some patients call "brain fog" are some of the most common symptoms.
With so many instances of post-COVID sickness among recovered individuals, the WHO implemented a case report form to collect data from physicians and patients alike. Experts hope that the information on these forms might help them learn more about post-COVID symptoms and how to treat them. "What we don't know is why it's happening, so what is the pathophysiology… of this condition… the researchers are really working hard to get to the answers of these questions," Diaz said. She stresses the importance of understanding the condition, given the magnitude of the pandemic and the effects that post-COVID sickness might bring on healthcare systems worldwide.
New Developments Around the COVID-19 Vaccine
The article also reports that UN Children's Fund
UNICEF secured a deal alongside the
COVAX platform to distribute the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine sometime before the end of March. According to the statement made by the UN Agency, the agreement "allows UNICEF to procure up to 40 million doses that have been secured under the COVAX Facility's Advance Purchase Agreement with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to be available throughout 2021."
With 107,252,265 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 2,355,339 deaths reported on February 12th, scientists continue their efforts to understand the virus and its effects on the human body.
You can read the complete article here:
Constellation' of Post-COVID Symptoms Will Impact Global Healthcare, Says WHO.
