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Leading science journal, Nature, has said that breathlessness and fatigue are among the continuing and debilitating symptoms being reported by people with Covid-19 often months after the onset of the disease. However, researchers and clinicians have yet to agree on a name for these ongoing symptoms.
The medical literature names include ‘post-Covid syndrome’ and ‘chronic Covid-19’. Now, researchers, patient groups and those affected by the condition are urging that ‘long Covid’ be used.
Also read: Covid-19 can cause brain fog, PTSD: Study
They are also calling for the definition of recovery from Covid-19 to be based on criteria that extend beyond just testing negative for Covid-19. The World Health Organisation is closely following developments on this topic. Researchers and funding agencies, too, must give more urgent consideration to the definition of recovery from Covid-19 and whether to adopt the ‘long Covid’ terminology and to put the patient voice at the centre of the process, the journal said.
In deciding how to act on ‘long Covid’, researchers and policymakers must take heed of what happened in the case of myalgic encephalomyelitis, also called chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). The condition shares some of the symptoms of long Covid, and people with ME/CFS struggled for many years to be recognised as having a serious and debilitating medical condition that needed specialised treatment and research, the journal added.
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