Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
Long COVID affects millions of Americans of almost all ages, but there has been no standard definition for the condition until now.
The U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine announced the definition for long COVID June 11.
Previous definitions of long COVID have been all over the map, each with its own set of accepted symptoms, timelines and requirements for proof of infection (SN: 7/29/22).
That lack of standardization “left many patients in the lurch without clear ability to be recognized for the condition that they had, with difficulty explaining to family and even to their caregivers,” says Harvey Fineberg, a public health expert who chaired the committee that drafted the definition. “We heard from literally hundreds of people experiencing long COVID about the challenges that they had in being heard, in gaining access to care and obtaining the care they needed.”
More than 1,300 people contributed to the definition. The committee decided to adopt the patients’ own term “long COVID” instead of more medical terms such as “post-acute sequelae of COVID-19” that have also been used to describe the long-term condition.
Adoption of the name the patients advocated for gives validation to everyone with the condition who has been struggling, sometimes for years, to have their experience acknowledged, says Daria Oller, a physical therapist in New Jersey who developed long COVID in 2020. “Now, people are trying to not use the term long COVID, and all of us, patients from the first wave, are fighting. We were ignored. That’s ours. We named it.”
The committee chose to go with the name because it’s simple, familiar and easy to communicate, Fineberg said during a webinar introducing the definition.
No one knows exactly how many people have long COVID, but a recent survey found that more than 17 percent of adults in the United States have experienced the condition. While the National Academies don’t have regulatory or legal power to enforce adoption of the definition, the respected body of scientific experts’ recommendations are often used in making regulatory decisions, determining medical and scientific policies and crafting laws.
Here’s what to know about the long COVID definition.
It’s a medical condition that belongs to a family of chronic conditions that kick in after infections with viruses, bacteria, fungi or parasites. That includes chronic health problems such as myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and Lyme-associated chronic illnesses.
According to the National Academies’ definition, long COVID is a medical condition that persists for at least three months after an infection with SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Long COVID can affect any organ or system in the body. People may have any of more than 200 symptoms, which may include difficulty breathing, brain fog, blood clots, dizziness, extreme fatigue after exercising, loss of taste or smell, fast heart rate, diarrhea, constipation, diabetes and autoimmune diseases such as lupus (SN: 2/2/22; SN: 8/21/23; SN: 1/4/22). Those symptoms can appear alone or in multiple combinations, can be continuous, get progressively worse or have bouts in which the patient gets better and then worse again.
Chronic symptoms can affect people who originally had mild to severe COVID and can even strike people who didn’t have any symptoms at all from their original infection. For that reason, the committee that crafted the Academies’ definition says that people don’t need to have had a positive COVID test to be diagnosed with long COVID.
The condition can strike adults and children and can start weeks or months after seeming recovery from the initial infection. The committee didn’t put an upper limit on how long after getting the original illness that long COVID could start.
There are no blood tests or biomarkers that doctors can use to reliably diagnose long COVID right now. The report calls for continued research to find such diagnostic tools.
This definition follows a June 5 report that the Social Security Administration asked the National Academies to prepare. That report similarly found that long COVID can have debilitating symptoms that can affect people’s physical function, quality of life and their ability to work or perform in school for years.
The definition is “intentionally inclusive,” the committee says.
U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. A long COVID definition. A chronic, systemic disease state with profound consequences. June 11, 2024.
U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. Long-term health effects of COVID-19. Disability and function following SARS-CoV-2 infection. June 5, 2024
(Score: 0, Troll) by Type44Q on Saturday June 15 2024, @07:49PM (7 children)
Are the vaxxed sure they want to have this discussion??
It might be a little disturbing for them...
(Score: 4, Insightful) by mhajicek on Saturday June 15 2024, @08:23PM (4 children)
I got COVID in March of '20, long before any vax was available. It has ruined my health, seemingly permanently.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 4, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Saturday June 15 2024, @10:57PM
I was born in the late 1960s, time has ruined my health, seemingly permanently.
I had no vaccine + a later wave COVID in July of 2021, it was miserable for a month or two, but long term my health, CFS, etc. is just about as bad now as it was in 2019.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 16 2024, @06:05PM (2 children)
something weird about all this, as i can't seem to ever get this alleged Covid.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 16 2024, @08:29PM
Well then, it's proven, the world revolves around you!
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Monday June 17 2024, @12:21AM
Some people get it, but don't show symptoms. Count yourself lucky.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2, Flamebait) by helel on Saturday June 15 2024, @08:46PM (1 child)
Unvaccinated individuals are significantly more likely to develop long COVID than the "vaxxed." [nih.gov] Is it worth discussing with somebody who willfully ignores reality in favor of their conspiracy theories? Probably not...
(Score: 2) by ChrisMaple on Tuesday June 18 2024, @06:27AM
Only COVID-vaccinated people suffer COVID vaccination damage.
Government bungling and malfeasance created the disease, governments fascistically promoted the creation of defective and inadequately tested vaccines, and they fascistically opposed the use of existing palliative medicines. The benefits of vitamin D were ignored and suppressed in many countries.
Just as shameful, governments, educational and other institutions, and businesses, combined to censor and suppress information about the disease and how to deal with it.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 15 2024, @08:43PM (2 children)
"Long Covid" is largely Long Post-Vaccination Side Affects.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Sunday June 16 2024, @01:22AM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 3, Insightful) by khallow on Sunday June 16 2024, @05:00AM
Especially if your idea of vaccination is catching covid. /sarc
(Score: 3, Touché) by darkfeline on Sunday June 16 2024, @10:48AM (1 child)
"There are no blood tests or biomarkers that doctors can use to reliably diagnose long COVID right now."
Yeah... about that. There are a ton of conflicting variables and ambiguity of symptoms to define this as a discrete disease. A lot of people are suffering from "long lockdown" for example.
"We're seeing this thing that might happen after undetected cases of 'infection'. Also there are no testable markers. But it's definitely caused by the thing that sometimes wasn't detected"
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 16 2024, @06:09PM
vaxxed fat asses who do what they are told