Delta Surge 'Could Leave Hundreds of Thousands w LONG COVID': Unvaxed Younger Sufferers More At Risk

[appalachiablue]

- 'Unvaccinated younger sufferers more at risk of debilitating long-term symptoms, study finds.' The Guardian, July 13, 2021. - Ed.

The decision to lift England’s remaining Covid restrictions next Monday – even as cases of the Delta variant surge around the country – is expected to turbocharge the epidemic and push the nation into what one leading scientist called “uncharted territory” in terms of the numbers of people left suffering from long Covid.

Ministers have been told to expect at least one to two million coronavirus infections in the coming weeks. And while the mass rollout of vaccines – which started with elderly and vulnerable people – will dramatically reduce the proportion who are hospitalised and die, the wave may leave hundreds of thousands of younger people with long-term health problems, researchers have said.

Also known as post-Covid syndrome, long Covid describes more than a dozen symptoms that can endure for months after testing positive for the virus. Many patients experience debilitating fatigue, shortness of breath, chest pains, sleeping difficulties and problems with memory and concentration, often referred to as “brain fog”. Danny Altmann, a professor of immunology says evidence from multiple countries now suggests that a significant number of people who get Covid – whether they know they are infected or not – are at risk of developing longer-term illness.

“From every version of Covid we’ve ever seen on the planet, we’ve got a rule of thumb that any case of Covid, whether it’s asymptomatic, mild, severe, or hospitalised, incurs a 10 to 20% risk of developing long Covid, and we haven’t seen any exceptions to that,” he said. The Health secretary, Sajid Javid has warned that Covid infections may soon reach 100,000 per day, so Altmann says it is reasonable to expect 10,000 or 20,000 of those daily cases to go on to develop long Covid. But there are huge uncertainties around long Covid...

Continued,
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jul/13/delta-surge-could-leave-hundreds-of-thousands-with-long-covid
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Related: Long Covid: Early Findings Bring Hope For Diagnostic Tests, BBC, 7/11/21
https://www.democraticunderground.com/114225884

[PortTack]

1. Having suffered thru an undiagnosed case of Lyme disease decades ago, the long covid

Scares me a lot more than dying from it.

Get vaccinated! Long term Debilitating disease is a terrible thing...

[appalachiablue]

2. I hear you, I've read about the awful effects

of Lyme Disease that's spread in the last 20+ years helped by warmer weather from climate change. Young healthy people in Canada, England and Scotland coming down with Lyme, and having long, long term effects. Sorry you went thru that and undiagnosed.

Acute medical issues I've dealt with ok, got through a couple. But serious chronic illness I don't do too well. I'd much rather go, as you said than try to manage Long Covid, esp. at this point in life. ~ Here's to good health.

[wnylib]

5. I experienced a crippling aftermath of a virus

long before covid existed, so I know how debilitating the after effects of a virus can be.

6 years ago I had 4 bouts of viral bronchitis in one winter because I kept getting reinfected by coworkers. My doctor completed paperwork for a 2 week FMLA leave to remove me from reinfection long enough to fully recover.

Then I developed a crippling disorder that I had never heard of before, polymyagia rheumatica (pmr). It occurs after serious viral infections, in people 60 and over, usually women. The pain was excruciating everywhere, and limited the range of motion in my arms. Fortunately, Prednisone relieves the pain and inflammation. It took 2 years on Prednisone to get it in remission. I still get minor "relapses" for a day or two if I overdue muscle use.

Long term effects of an illness are real and too miserable to risk if you can avoid geting the illness in the first place.

[BigmanPigman]

3. And the UK has over 35,000 new cases today.

[appalachiablue]

4. Boris and the libertarian health minister

lifting restrictions too soon, for 'freedumb..' Real trouble.