A British historian, an Italian archaeologist and an American preschool teacher have never met face-to-face, but they share a striking link about the pandemic. Baffled by uncanny similar symptoms, three women are credited with describing, naming, and helping bring lingering COVID to the masses in early 2020. (Also read: Long-lasting Covid brain fog: Know symptoms, effective coping tips)
Rachel Pope, of Liverpool, took to Twitter in late March 2020 to describe her bedridden symptoms, then unnamed, after contracting the coronavirus. Elisa Perego of Italy first used the term “long-term COVID,” in a tweet in May of that year. Amy Watson of Portland, Oregon, got inspiration when she named her Facebook support group from the phone. the driver’s hat she was wearing and the “long-distance driver” quickly became part of the pandemic dictionary.
Nearly three years after the pandemic, scientists are still trying to figure out why some people have COVID so long and why a small percentage — including three women — have persistent symptoms.
Millions of people worldwide have sustained COVID, reporting various symptoms including fatigue, lung problems, brain fog, and other neurological symptoms. Evidence suggests most recover significantly within a year, but recent data suggest it has contributed to more than 3,500 deaths in the United States.
Here are some of the latest proofs:
WOMEN HAVE MORE RISK?
Numerous studies and anecdotal evidence suggest that women are more likely to develop long-term COVID than men.
There may be biological reasons.
Sabra Klein, a Johns Hopkins professor who studies immunity, notes that women’s immune systems often produce stronger responses to viruses, bacteria, parasites, and other pathogens. other germs.
Women are also more likely to develop autoimmune diseases than men, in which the body mistakenly attacks its own healthy cells. Some scientists believe that persistent COVID may be the result of an autoimmune response triggered by the virus.
Women’s bodies also tend to have more fatty tissue, and emerging research suggests the coronavirus can hide in fat after infection. Scientists are also studying whether a woman’s fluctuating hormone levels may increase the risk.
Another possible factor: Women are more likely to seek health care than men and are generally more attuned to changes in their bodies, Klein noted.
“I don’t think we should ignore that,” Klein said.
It may therefore be no coincidence that it was these three women who helped shed the first light on enduring COVID.
Pope, 46, began documenting what she experienced in March 2020: flu-like symptoms, after which her lungs, heart and joints were affected. After a month, she started having some “OK” days, but the symptoms continued.
She and several similarly ill colleagues connected with Perego on Twitter. “We started coming together because that was really the only place we could do it,” Pope said. “In 2020, we joked that we were going to spend Christmas together and throw a party,” Pope said. Obviously it’s moved on, and I think we’ve stopped joking around.
Watson started his virtual long-distance transportation group in April of that year. Others soon learned of the moniker and adopted it.
VIRUS MONO
Some research suggests that the ubiquitous Epstein-Barr virus may play a role in some cases of persistent COVID.
Dr Timothy Henrich, a virologist at the University of California, San Francisco, said the inflammation caused by coronavirus infection can trigger the herpes virus, which persists in the body after an acute infection. .
Epstein-Barr virus is one of the most common herpes viruses: An estimated 90% of the US population has been infected with this virus. The virus can cause mononucleosis or symptoms that can be thought of as a cold.
Henrich is among researchers who have found immune markers for Epstein-Barr reactivation in the blood of patients with long-standing COVID, especially those with fatigue.
Not all long-term COVID patients have these signs. But it’s possible that Epstein-Barr is causing the symptoms in people with the disease, though scientists say more research is needed.
Some scientists also believe that Epstein-Barr causes chronic fatigue syndrome, a condition that shares many similarities with long-term COVID, but that has also not been proven.
FAT
Obesity is a risk factor for serious COVID-19 infections, and scientists are trying to figure out why.
Stanford University researchers are among those who have found evidence that coronavirus can infect fat cells. In a recent study, they found the virus and markers of inflammation in fatty tissue taken from people who had died of COVID.
Laboratory tests show that the virus can reproduce in fatty tissue. That raises the possibility that adipose tissue could act as a “reservoir,” potentially providing energy for prolonged COVID.
Can adipose tissue removal treat or prevent some persistent cases of COVID? It’s a tantalizing question, but the study is preliminary, said Dr. Catherine Blish, a Stanford professor of infectious diseases and lead author of the study.
Scientists at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center are studying leptin, a hormone produced by fat cells that can affect the body’s immune response and promote inflammation.
They plan to study whether injecting a manufactured antibody can lower leptin levels — and thus induce protracted inflammation from coronavirus or COVID infections.
Dr Philipp Scherer said: “We have good science along with some preliminary data to argue that we may be on the right track.
PERIOD
It is estimated that about 30% of people infected with coronavirus will develop persistent COVID, based on data from earlier in the pandemic.
Most people with persistent, recurrent, or new symptoms after infection recover in about three months. According to a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, of those who develop symptoms after three months, about 15% will continue to have symptoms for at least another nine months.
Dr Lawrence Purpura, an infectious disease expert at Columbia University, said figuring out who is at risk for years-long symptoms “is a complicated question”.
People with severe infections seem to be more at risk for long-term COVID, although it can also affect people with mild infections. People with infections that cause severe lung damage including scarring may experience shortness of breath, cough, or fatigue for more than a year. And a small subset of patients with a mild initial COVID-19 infection may develop neurological symptoms over a year, including chronic fatigue and brain fog, Purpura said.
“Most patients will eventually recover,” he said. It’s important that people know that.”
It’s little consolation for the three women who have helped the world realize long COVID.
Perego, 44, developed heart, lung and nerve problems and is still seriously ill.
She knows scientists have learned a lot in a short time, but she says there is “a gap” between long-term COVID research and medical care.
“We need to translate scientific knowledge into better policy and treatment,” she said.
Watson, soon to be 50, says she “never recovered”. She suffered from severe migraines, plus digestive, nerve and leg problems. She recently suffered from severe anemia.
She wishes the medical community had a more organized approach to long-lasting COVID treatment. Doctors say that not knowing the cause or the underlying cause makes this difficult.
“I just want my life back,” Watson said, “and it doesn’t seem like all that is possible.”
