Michelle Answerth rejoices as she remembers spending the warm summer days of her long service leave sailing the tropical north coast of Queensland with her partner late last year.
Key points:
- A new study has found that women are more likely to report long-term symptoms of COVID than men
- Other risk factors include increased age, poor physical or mental health, and asthma
- Australian researchers say more focus is needed on long-term COVID
“We sailed to Magnetic Island, around Townsville, and then all over Queensland, the Whitsundays and then all the way down the coast back to Victoria,” he says.
However, shortly after returning home for Christmas, the 54-year-old contracted COVID-19.
The first five or six days he had few symptoms, but then he began to get sick.
“For me, most of the problem was around body aches,” he says.
Little did she know then, but those bodily pains would persist and her infection would change her life as she knew it.
Michelle Answerth sailed the east coast of Australia while on long service leave. (Provided by: Michelle Answerth)
Ms. Answerth has had COVID for a long time and has been unable to return to her work as a disability support worker due to extensive nerve pain and reduced mobility in her arms.
“I would be breathless just climbing the stairs at home, breathless at the top of the stairs, standing, sitting, just doing normal things,” he said.
“In addition to the pain, I was [also] losing the movement of my right arm and a little of my left arm “.
Although some of her symptoms, such as fatigue and brain fog, have been relieved, Ms. Answerth has not been able to maintain her active lifestyle before COVID-19, which has caused her to increase by about 10 kilos.
“The first few months were very stressful and also very scary because I didn’t know, on a cellular level, what was going on with my body,” he said.
“Not yet, because there are different studies that explain different theories, but there is no definitive answer.”
According to the study, women are more likely to develop long-term COVID
New research published in the scientific journal Nature Communications overnight suggests that as a woman in her 50s, Ms. Answerth is in a major risk group for developing the disease.
According to the Australian government, long COVID is where symptoms persist for more than four weeks.
Common symptoms include extreme fatigue, difficulty breathing or chest tightness, brain fog, and difficulty with memory and joint pain.
Factors associated with a higher risk of reporting long-term symptoms of COVID:
- Older age
- Female sex
- White ethnicity
- General and mental health pre-COVID-19
- Asthma
- Obesity / overweight
Source: Nature Communications
Very little is known about the disease, what causes it, or how to treat it effectively.
British researchers found that women, people in poor health before the pandemic and people between the ages of 50 and 60 report the symptoms of long-term COVID more often.
Researchers at King’s College London reviewed data from nearly 7,000 people in health surveys, as well as electronic health records of more than 1.1 million people diagnosed with COVID-19.
They found that the chances of developing long-term COVID were 50% higher in women than in men.
The peer-reviewed data are consistent with findings from other studies that have found that women are more susceptible to long-term COVID, says Kirsty Short, a virologist at the University of Queensland.
“This study is reinforced because of the large sample and also that they analyzed multiple data sources. So I think this study is very strong and robust,” Dr. Short said.
Dr. Kirsty Short says there is no good treatment for long-term COVID. (ABC News: Marton Dobras)
Age seems to be a factor, as the likelihood of developing long-term COVID increases to 70 years.
In addition, researchers say having asthma increases the chances of suffering from postviral disease.
Interestingly, they found no solid evidence of long-term COVID associations with a previous medical history of diabetes, high blood pressure, or high cholesterol.
“Given the scale of the pandemic, even a low proportion of individuals with long-term COVID will generate a large burden of enduring disease,” the study authors said.
Thousands of patients, but no real treatments
Many Australians are struggling with long COVID.
Although there are no official figures on prevalence here, data abroad suggest that between 10 and 30 percent of people who contract COVID-19 will have ongoing health problems.
Many patients may develop a disease known as postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome or POTS.
When you get up, your heart speeds up and your blood pressure drops and this can cause severe fatigue, headaches and difficulty concentrating.
With seven million Australians having contracted the virus, even if 5% of people have COVID for a long time, this could mean up to 350,000 people will be affected.
“This is something we really need to focus on, the scientific community, the medical community and public health,” Dr. Short said.
“There will be a disease burden due to the long COVID, but we still don’t know how important it is and what it means for the workforce and the healthcare system.”
Many longtime COVID patients who have come in contact with ABC, such as Michelle, have said they could no longer work and had difficulty with daily life.
Do you know more about this story? Email Specialist.Team@abc.net.au.
Long COVID clinics have been set up in major hospitals in most states and territories offering rehabilitation, physiotherapy and psychological support among other services.
However, there are few medications that can help patients regain the physical and cognitive abilities they had before contracting the virus.
“The real difficulty we have with long COVID is that we don’t have a great diagnostic test and we don’t have a great deal of treatment,” Dr. Short said.
Dr. Short’s lab at the University of Queensland is working on a diagnostic tool for long COVID, focusing on the role that inflammation plays in the disease.
“If we can understand how long COVID develops, we can develop better treatments for long-term COVID patients,” he said.
There are also many studies testing possible treatments, such as anti-inflammatory or antiviral.
Michelle Answerth now helps run a support page for long-term patients with COVID.
Ms. Answerth now helps manage a Facebook community page for long-term patients with COVID.
Given the lack of understanding of, or research on, the disease, the 1,400-member group has become a form of grassroots support for patients to share their experiences.
“There are men who are active in the group, but they are predominantly women. I see a lot of people who were active before who say, ‘This has really changed my life,'” she said.
It is for this reason that Ms. Answerth hopes that any research on the disease will help find new treatments and support for those who have the disease.
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