<
https://www.cp24.com/lifestyle/health/many-canadians-have-had-long-covid-for-almost-4-years-researchers-say-there-s-hope-1.6690548>
"TORONTO - Four years ago, Sonja Mally was a busy tattoo artist witha
photographic memory and penchant for long hikes.
Now, the 38-year-old Toronto woman considers it a good day if she can do a
small drawing, muster the energy to walk around the block or “perform very
basic tasks.”
“It's a hard thing to have to explain to people why maybe one day you might be
doing fine and the next day you can't find the words to complete a sentence,”
Mally said.
Debilitating long-COVID symptoms ended the career she loved and forced her to
go on Ontario government disability payments, which she supplements with some
part-time administrative work.
Mally's world changed in March 2020, when she got what she thought was a mild
cold - “nothing that I thought was going to slow me down.”
“It was what happened afterwards that was devastating for me.”
That COVID-19 infection led to respiratory problems and extreme fatigue. Then
came more terrifying symptoms, including brain fog so severe that the artist
couldn't draw a clock during a neurology exam, as well as “excruciating pain”
that “felt like my veins were on fire.”
The biggest difference between now and then, Mally said, is that the
health-care community now recognizes long COVID is real.
“I don't have to have that battle with medical practitioners (anymore) trying
to convince them that this condition that I have exists.”
A recent Statistics Canada report estimated 3.5 million people in Canada, or
11.7 per cent of the adult population, reported “long-term symptoms” lasting at
least three months after COVID-19 infection as of June 2023.
Many of those meet the World Health Organization's definition of long COVID -
also called post COVID-19 condition - which is “the continuation or development
of new symptoms three months after the initial SARS-CoV-2 infection, with these
symptoms lasting for at least two months with no other explanation.”
Forty-two per cent of the people in Canada reporting lasting symptoms had them
for a year or more - and for many, they haven't resolved, StatCan's report
said.
But Canadian doctors and scientists want long COVID patients to know that
research is accelerating."
Via Violet Blue’s
Pandemic Roundup: December 21, 2023
https://www.patreon.com/posts/pandemic-roundup-95043283
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
