Health providers have been carrying patients suffering from SARS-CoV-2 infections since the pandemic began in December 2019, or maybe even earlier. As the virus travels and infects different human hosts, it mutates, and the strains that result can behave differently, at least in terms of symptoms and transmission rate. Some of the dominant strains identified so far are the Alpha, identified in the U.K, the Beta variant, which originated in South Africa. The Gama strain originated in Brazil and the Delta variant in India; the Lambda variant originated in Peru. Since their identification, the different SARS-CoV-2 variants have been detected all over the world.
What do we know about long terms recovery after Covid-19?
Many people who did not experience the infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus and those who only had mild cases do not know the symptoms of those who have or are experiencing long-term COVID symptoms.
According to a NICE guideline, health workers define long Covid as a severe case of infection when the patient suffers from symptoms even after 12 weeks since its detection with a PCR test. The recovery from long Covid is difficult, as researchers are not yet sure why some immune systems are much more affected than others.
What are the symptoms reported for long term Covid?
Some of the symptoms presented include pain in the joints, shortness of breath, chest pain, heart palpitations, and feeling tired all the time; the taste and the smell are not back 100%. In other cases, patients even experience extreme long-term symptoms. Extreme symptoms of long term Covid are insomnia, hearing and vision problems, hallucinations and memory loss. Some patients even develop speech and bladder issues.
Some women experience changes in their periods, and both males and females reported gastrointestinal and skin conditions.Due to so many different symptoms affecting up to ten or more organs, health workers have the difficult mission to help patients recovering from long-term Covid.
