Researchers Are Getting Closer to Understanding Long COVID. But Treatments Are Likely Still a Ways Off

Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, questions about Long COVID still outnumber answers. Why do some people develop long-lasting symptoms—often after a mild case of COVID-19, sometimes even after being vaccinated—while others fully recover from their brushes with the SARS-CoV-2 virus? Why does Long COVID seem to disproportionately appear in women? How can one condition affect numerous bodily systems, causing symptoms ranging from brain fog to joint pain to total exhaustion? Is Long COVID a single diagnosis, or is it better understood as an umbrella term for a spectrum of disease, caused by a range of biologically diverse effects of the virus? Or, could it actually be a new manifestation of post-viral illnesses that have been around for decades? [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] A flurry of recent studies, some of which have been peer-reviewed and published, and others that are currently going through that process, seek to explain why millions of people suffer from Long COVID. Each one contributes a small piece to the larger research puzzle, helping to build scientific understanding of the disease, little by little. Even as they do, though, the number of people living with Long COVID grows every day, and there are still few research-backed treatments to offer them. “Patients are pushing for an answer. They’re pushing for the one treatment,” says Christina Martin, a nurse practitioner who helps run Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center&rsq...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 healthscienceclimate Source Type: news