Research now needs to focus on long COVID

His is just one of many cases of people dealing with long COVID.

Three years ago, just prior to when the NHL and other major sports were shut down because of COVID, there was very little that we knew of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

In 2023, we are still trying to learn more about long-term COVID.

In the past three years, there have been 103 million reported cases of COVID in the United States. More than a million have died, but most of the ones who have survived have recovered and have returned to their normal lives.

Some, however, have not. They continue to have heart, kidney and circulatory problems. Others have respiratory, digestive and anxiety issues.

A recent study in Nature Medicine found that of those who had COVID, 34% are still dealing with the effects of long COVID. The symptoms can last for weeks, months, even years.

Long COVID is more prevalent in people who had underlying conditions or were not vaccinated. And for reasons unknown, it affects women more than men.

While there is much to learn about long COVID, researchers in West Virginia are monitoring those patients whose symptoms linger.

Dr. Imran Khawaja, section chief of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine at the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, told us that during the pandemic, some patients continued to suffer lung disease and shortness of breath long after their infection had passed.

“That motivated us to start a long COVID clinic to see if we can help these people out,” he said.

Khawaja said a team of physical therapists, mental health professionals, neurologists and social workers are studying and treating patients 18 or older who are exhibiting long-term effects of COVID.

The National Institutes of Health has launched a program called RECOVER to track 17,000 patients. The study has 15 hub sites across the country in 11 states, including West Virginia.

West Virginia University has 174 participants in its study, according to Dr. Sally Hodder, director of the West Virginia Clinical and Translational Institute.

“There have been some studies that have suggested that the virus, SARS-CoV-2 virus, persists in some cells, resulting in symptoms. Other studies have suggested that there is ongoing inflammation that is really precipitated by antibodies and that really can attack the ... antigens within the body. They all need confirmation,” Hodder said.

We’ve learned much about COVID in the past three years, but it would seem that research on long COVID will keep medical professionals busy for some time to come.

There are many of us who are so done with COVID and seek to move on. But for others, moving on is not an option.

This will not be an easy task. Tracking long COVID and its many symptoms will be difficult. It may take awhile before we begin to get a clearer picture.

We are glad that our state’s two premier universities are participating in the study of long COVID, and we are confident they can find solutions and treatments for this problem.

If you have questions or would like to participate in a study, you can get more information at recovercovid.org.