Long Haul Carriers of COVID-19 Still Suffering Months After Diagnosis

The headaches became so severe, “it was making my vision get blurry,” she told News 5. It affected her ability to read or focus on her studies. The mother of two was forced to take a break from school. That was in August of 2020. Now, in November 2021, “my taste and smell is still abnormal,” she said. “Sometimes I don’t even have an appetite because food don’t be tasting right.” She still gets headaches too, something that never happened before she got COVID-19. We spoke with MetroHealth Rheumatologist Dr. Elisheva Weinberger about how doctors define these so-called Long Haulers.

“We use ‘long hauler’ for people who are having persistent symptoms after their acute infections,” she said. The formal diagnosis is Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 Infection, or PASC. That means a patient is still suffering symptoms 12 weeks after the initial, acute infection. And the doctor said there are myriad symptoms to watch out for. The most common are fatigue, brain fog including trouble concentrating, confusion and memory loss, and shortness of breath, and gastrointestinal problems. But some patients can also experience chest pains and heart palpitations. Brown told News 5 she hopes her story will convince everyone to take this virus seriously, get the help they need, and get vaccinated to protect themselves and their communities.

“You’re not alone,” she said. “There are a lot of people struggling with the same thing and know that we’re here to listen and we believe you.” Brown is hoping to be part of a solution. She’s part of a six-month pilot program designed to address the specific challenges our area’s African American community faces when living with Long COVID-19. ‘The Long Haul’ was funded by a grant from the COVID-19 Rapid Fund and kicks off with an event Saturday. “A lot of people think this is a game like they don’t believe in this. I tell them it is real. It is real,” she said. “This disease is killing people.”

There are some risk factors associated with your chances of getting PASC. If you have a more severe acute infection, one that requires hospitalization, you’re more likely to have these long-term problems. Females are also more likely than males to experience long-term effects, as are those with a higher BMI, and those with more than five symptoms in the initial infection. If you’re dealing with these long-term effects of the virus, Weinberger told News 5, there’s help out there. “A lot of people really do feel alone, and they feel like people don’t understand what they’re going through and don’t understand their struggles and don’t believe them when they say, you know, that they can barely get through a day without napping four hours that day,” she said.

This story has been taken from a syndicate feed without modification to the text.