COVID-19: THE YOUNG ARE AT RISK FROM 'LONGCOVID'

Are you in your 20s, 30s, or 40s?  Or still at school or university?  Or a parent of someone that age?

If you think the chances of dying from COVID-19 are so low you needn't worry, you're probably right.  Hospitalisation and death is a far higher probability for the over 50s.  But.  And it is a very big but...

If you haven't heard of 'LongCOVID' it's time to find out. Because it affects at least 20% of people who catch COVID-19.  Some studies suggest 60% or more, as below.  More than half.  All ages, you too.

For children it's called MIS-C (Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children) with symptoms much the same as for adults.

  'LongCOVID' is a new expression covering two types of symptoms that can last many months:

1. Lethargy, as can happen after any serious viral or bacterial infection
2. Organs throughout the body being damaged.  Painful and debilitating, perhaps for life

Here's my letter published in the iNewspaper last Thursday, which provides an introduction to organ damage:

LETHARGY

When I was in my mid 20s, I was sent on a fascinating business review project that involved visiting the major regional newspapers from Reading to Aberdeen, including The Scotsman.  Part way through I developed flu-like symptoms.  Ordinarily I would have gone to bed, but I persevered.

I got over the main symptoms in a couple of days, much like I expected.  But the whole of the following year I had to intermittently take significant time off work, unable to function adequately.  My employer was very understanding, and deducted no pay.  But it could have been very different.

More recently I had a leg infection.  Six weeks at least unable to use my laptop to work.  Nobody can afford that these days.

So no surprise that after having COVID-19, a significant proportion of people of all ages are complaining of lethargy like mine.  That's whether they have been in hospital, just had mild symptoms at home, or even not displayed any usual COVID-19 symptoms.

Here's an article describing extreme lethargy symptoms for younger adults., plus additional symptoms.

COVID-19 can be highly disruptive, to say the least!  But the real problem is multi-organ damage, that you don't get with 'flu.


MULTI-ORGAN DAMAGE

How COVID-19 affects the Body

Severe symptoms occur because COVID-19 has a very different effect on the body than flu.  The SARS-COV-2 virus that causes it gets into human cells using the ACE2 receptor, which is a feature of cells in most organs including lungs, blood vessels, heart, kidney, and intestines. Even the brain.  Though fortunately not skin. 

If the virus gets into the bloodstream, such as having caused damage in the lungs, it can damage any organ. 

Once the virus is in the blood it can also cause microclotting, such that most people with COVID-19 in hospital need to be given blood thinners.

These microclots can themselves do damage to organs. They can also cause strokes, even in younger people.

The microclots can also reduce the ability of the blood to accept oxygen from the lungs.

A triple whammy.

These effects are regardless of age.  Young and old.  Younger people are mistaken to think COVID-19 is only an older person’s worry.

Children can also be affected, with MIS-C, Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children, which is a similar multi-organ problem to that which affects adults.

This all makes COVID-19 a far more serious disease than flu, for all ages including children. 

LongCOVID Symptoms

So COVID-19 can cause damage to the brain and other organs which can have long-lasting effects, including chronic pain and debilitation. In some people the standard initial symptoms can also last for a prolonged period.

Ongoing symptoms like these are termed “LongCOVID”.  Here’s a discussion from the British Medical Journal published mid July.

This article includes a quote from Paul Garner, a professor of infectious diseases, who caught COVID-19 early on and was one of the first to bring LongCOVID to the attention of the medical profession.  He describes it as “frightening and long.”. He reported a long list of symptoms lasting weeks and leaving him "feeling unable to function".

If you've been in hospital

This BMJ article also reports that “researchers from Italy reported that nearly nine in 10 patients (87%) discharged from a Rome hospital after recovering from covid-19 were still experiencing at least one symptom 60 days after onset”…” fatigue (53%), dyspnoea (43%), joint pain (27%), and chest pain (22%). Two fifths of patients reported a worsened quality of life.”

If you've haven't been in hospital 

Other studies also suggest that a large proportion of people who have had COVID-19 have long-term symptoms, even when they haven't needed  hospital treatment,  

This study from Holland covered 1622 COVID-19 sufferers of which 91% had not been to hospital..  (If your translation of the title says "homeowners" it should be "home sitters", as in people being ill at home),  "The average age is 53 [so younger people as well as older], by far the largest group (85 percent) say their health was good before the corona infection. Now that is only 6 percent. Almost half indicate that they can no longer exercise after corona, more than 6 in 10 even have problems with walking. "That is shocking," says Michael Rutgers. “60 percent of those surveyed had not previously been treated by a doctor. These are just healthy people who are now wondering if they will ever fully recover from corona." ”

Very little from the BBC, and nothing that I have seen hit their main headlines.  Though this graphic from one of their articles is interesting.  This reflects an Italian study of a small number of people, but is indicative.  Note this is by comparison to around 1% of people with COVID symptoms die.

Fatigue and breathlessness each affect around half of people.  Joint pain and chest pain are each around 20%, unrelated to lungs .  The least common symptom after two months is diarrhoea, at 3% more common than dying,  Clearly LongCOVID is a big issue:

If that isn't enough to persuade you that you don't want to catch COVID-19, here are reports of hair loss, here and here due to a condition called "Telogen Effluvium"

So serious is the LongCOVID issue that the NHS is launching a rehabilitation service, and are opening rehabilitation centres around the country, supported by teams of physiotherapists, nurses and mental health specialists.

There is also now a British study focused on people who have been hospitalised, called the PHOSP COVID study, being PostHOSPitalised.  This was launched in early July by the NHS with support from the Health Secretary Matt Hancock, in which he is quoted as saying "As we continue our fight against this global pandemic, we are learning more and more about the impact the disease can have not only on immediate health, but longer-term physical and mental health too.".

So if Hancock knows about it, why isn't LongCOVID prominent in government publicity?  Indeed why seemingly absent?  Why aren't younger people and parents being warned that COVID-19 isn't just a danger to older people/?  For children, it is surprising that the NHS website doesn’t make any mention.

Here  Devi Sridhar, an advisor to the Scottish government and a member of the Independent SAGE group warns at 30min30 that this virus is “too dangerous to spread through the population, not only because of the mortality [dying] but because of the morbidity [LongCOVID] it causes in young adults…that’s going to be the story about COVID, not about the deaths”.  Chilling stuff.

This is especially worrying as in California, "adults ages 18 to 34 make up more than one-third of all infections" and "Adults ages 18 to 29 now account for 10% of COVID-19 hospitalizations in L.A. County, double the number in May. Adults in their 30s and 40s account for 1 of every 4 COVID-19 hospitalizations."



IN CONCLUSION

COVID-19 isn't just flu.  Whatever your age, young or old, it can leave you with severe lethargy for months.  It can also cause painful and debilitating damage to heart, brain, liver, kidneys and digestive system, in addition to lungs.  These LongCOVID symptoms can last for months, perhaps a lifetime.

Don't think you're immune, just because of your age.  COVID-19 isn't a disease you'd want to catch!