10% of COVID-19 patients treated at LUTH have long COVID – Physician

An infectious diseases physician, Dr Iorhen Akase, says 10 per cent of patients treated for COVID-19 at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) have symptoms of long COVID.

Akase, Head of Infectious Diseases Unit of LUTH, made the disclosure in an interview with our correspondent on Tuesday in Lagos.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), post COVID-19 condition, commonly known as long COVID, can affect anyone exposed to SARS-CoV-2, regardless of age or severity of original symptoms.

Long COVID is an illness in people who have either recovered from COVID-19 but still report lasting effects of the infection, or have had the usual symptoms for far longer than would be expected.

Akase said that LUTH had been tracking some patients it treated for COVID-19 and discovered that about seven to 10 per cent of the patients treated for COVID-19 came with complaints of symptoms of long COVID.

He told our correspondent that some of the patients were experiencing the symptoms almost two years after their first COVID-19 infection.

“In LUTH, we treated over 6,000 people for COVID-19 – those that were admitted and those that came as outpatients who were tested and treated at home.

“If we say 10 per cent, then it is about 600 patients with long COVID. Those are the ones we know for now.

“These people have long term consequences of COVID-19; that is why the message has to be clear to people that there is something called long COVID,” he said.

According to the expert, viral infections behave the same way.

“People go through an acute illness that lasts five to 14 days before recovering. They recover because the immune system rose up and fought against the virus.