Health professionals estimate that some 300,000 people in Catalonia have persistent covid. This is how they explained it this Thursday in the first congress in Barcelona dedicated to the problemof which they have admitted that there is still “little information”. “How will the different variants or whether or not the vaccine will be able to protect to a greater or lesser extent are doubts that we need to resolve and that is why it is very important to do a lot research”explained the coordinator of the persistent covid unit of the Germans Trias i Pujol Hospital (Can Ruti), Lourdes Mateo. In this sense, he has pointed out that, for the time being, have not noticed a worsening of the condition of patients with persistent covid who have returned to reinfect from the virus.
Among the most common symptoms presented by those affected, Mateu highlights the fatigue, extreme tiredness, shortness of breath, tachycardia, chest pain or joint pain. However, remember that not everyone “behaves the same”. Another general aspect is discouragement. “At first you hope you’ll get better soon, but when you haven’t been feeling well for two years, it’s normal to be discouraged.”
In addition, there is a second uncertainty of not knowing “if you will be cured or not,” he adds. In this sense, Mateu has also recalled that many of them may present “Very nonspecific symptoms.” “As there are still professionals who do not know enough about the disease, they have often felt abandoned,” he said. As for people reinfected with the virus (who already had persistent covid) they are doing well and most “stay the same”. “Yes there is a worsening during the acute phase of the new reinfection and then the symptoms remain the same,” has detailed this doctor.
On the other hand, Mateu has pointed out that they only have specific treatments, with a rehabilitative nature, for those symptomatic people. “It’s very important investigate to be able to see which treatments are going well and which are not,” he said. “We have a first clinical trial set and we are waiting for the approval of the Spanish Medicines Agency, it is very likely that around the summer we can start it”, has said.
In this sense, and while a definitive solution has not been found, the professional from the Germans Trias i Pujol Hospital has stressed that it is necessary to adapt all aspects, and not only the medical ones. “They are young patients. Some can be reinstated without any problem, but some cannot, and will need a adaptation of the sessions”, has explained. There is also a last group formed by patients who will not be able to return to work: “We will also have to offer them help.”
The illness in first person
One of the assistants to the day has been James Vaishman, a philosophy professor diagnosed with covid a year and a half ago and since then with persistent covid. Vaisman has explained that has not returned to teach, although he assures that doing so “is his life”. Thus, he has qualified all these months as a “horrible journey” Specifically, he has highlighted the bad moments he suffered at the beginning, which he defined as his “walk through old age”. “He was like an old man,” he has recounted.
On the other hand, he pointed out that the symptom who suffers now manifest themselves with severe headache, muscle weakness, and a “brain fog”“which does not allow him to read or concentrate, among other things, despite having done a lot of muscular and cognitive rehabilitation. “I can take my children sometimes, but they already know that little”, has lamented.
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Vaisman assures that despite not being emotionally ill and being a very optimistic person, “it’s hard to carry.” “I’ve been thinking for a year and a half that in a few months I’ll be better. And a couple of months come and I’m not. It is an absolute uncertainty and you don’t have a good time.” The “up and down” process leads to a strong downturn “when you think you’re alright” has declared.
Lastly, he was “extremely happy” to attend the conference to hear about and concentrate on medical professionals to “alleviate” what “is happening to many”.