Did you or someone you know test positive for COVID-19, and after the disease went away did you continue to exhibit symptoms or manifest other symptoms such as depression, anxiety, short-term memory loss, or "mental fogginess"? If so, you may be suffering from "long COVID" or Post-acute COVID-19 Syndrome.
According to Dr. Héctor Fabio Bonilla, co-director of the Stanford Hospital Post Acute COVID-19 Syndrome Clinic (PACS), pointed out that some people, after weeks of having suffered from the disease, have presented symptoms such as extreme tiredness, headache, concentration problems, lack of memory and even respiratory or heart problems.
These signs, said the also clinical associate professor of medicine and infectious diseases at Stanford School of Medicine, are labeled Post COVID Syndrome.
These long-term effects have also been defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) as syndromeafter this cluster of symptoms occurred 28 days after testing positive for SARS-CoV-2.
While the World Health Organization has defined Post-COVID Syndrome as the presentation of symptoms 5 to 6 months after having the disease.
Dr. Bonilla pointed out that there are different degrees of severity of this syndrome, in an interview conducted by Marcos Gutiérrez and Manuel Ortiz on the Peninsula 360 Radio program, on KIQI, on frequency 1010 AM from San Francisco, California, in collaboration with the program Hecho en California.
While it is true that the most frequent symptom in these patients is extreme fatigue, several of them also present "mental fog", a cognitive problem of memory and concentration in which processing information may entail some difficulties.
"When we look at this problem, this is nothing new. In patients with chronic fatigue syndrome it is one of the most important symptoms," he said.
He added that this mental fog is a symptom that "has been forgotten due to negligence on the part of the community and physicians in general. Because the patient looks very well and all the tests are normal, but when deeper studies are done with more sophisticated apparatus it has been found that the brain is compromised".
Recent evidence, he pointed out, has shown that in patients with COVID-19 the brain is affected. "This may possibly occur secondary to long-term COVID symptoms."
He added that in order to reach such conclusions, quite sophisticated studies have been performed, which measure brain metabolism.
"In patients with chronic fatigue who experience mind fog, it has been found that there is inflammation in the brain. Autopsy studies in the brain of patients with COVID have identified that there is inflammatory response in the brain, in addition to areas of low metabolism. It is something that is going on in the brain in patients with COVID that is not very well defined."
Identifying mental fog
According to Dr. Bonilla, the symptoms of mental fog manifest themselves when the patient says he or she cannot concentrate or begins to read and feels tired and forgets things. "Sometimes they forget the names of people or what to call things. They forget names of things they know and have to find words to explain to people. They have memory problems."
Post-COVID syndrome is still under study. Experts still fail to understand why, how and in what way the various symptoms can be treated.
"It's an area we're learning. It is something new. We are learning, we don't have the problem completely clarified on how to give a specific therapy. So far there isn't one. People empirically use drugs that decrease inflammation."
He also pointed out that there are anecdotal reports showing that patients have a favorable response to anti-inflammatory drugs.
"We have a clinic at Stanford to evaluate those patients, to find those problems, because patients a lot of times don't have mental fog and have to identify them properly to come up with more appropriate solutions."
In that sense, he stated that having such symptoms is not necessarily mental fog, as they could be the cause of other conditions, including brain tumors.
"The reason we have this clinic at Stanford is to try to evaluate those patients and determine if the symptoms they experience are related to COVID-19. Some people may come in with a headache and forget things and we may even find a brain tumor. It's important to assess patients.
He explained that Stanford's COVID-19 Post Acute Syndrome clinic at Stanford has specialists in internal medicine, infectious disease, neurology, cardiology, psychiatry, rheumatology, otolaryngology, allergy and immunology, sleep medicine and gastroenterology.
Empathy, part of the solution
For many, it may be difficult to understand and believe patients suffering from the syndrome, however, it is necessary to empathize and give comfort to people who suffer from it.
"The people who know how difficult this disease is are the people who live with it. It's important to have compassion for them."
Although work is being done to find quicker solutions, it has been found that between 80 and 90 percent of patients improve after one or two years post-infection.
However, there are others where symptoms persist, and that is where relief efforts are being focused.
Day to day life seems to be complicated for some patients, as it is quite possible to have severe symptoms one day and feel fine the next.
"It's like a roller coaster, some days are worse, some days are better, but some people experience new symptoms after COVID appeared. As soon as we have more information and know more we will be able to understand the problem much better."
Finally, Dr. Bonilla called on everyone to get vaccinated, and to get the booster for those who have already had their first two doses in those who have been immunized with the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine, or after a dose of J&J.
"It is important to protect ourselves, vaccination has been found to decrease Long COVID cases. Please get vaccinated."
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