Portal, AZ - Rodeo, NM
Serving The Communities Of Portal and Rodeo (www.portal-rodeo.com)
Coronavirus Update
Register For The Covid Vaccine
New Mexico: https://cvvaccine.nmhealth.org
ARIZONA: https://covid-cochisehealth.hub.arcgis.com/pages/vaccines
Are We Ready for the Long COVID Long-Haul?
The COVID public health emergency may be over, but this condition isn't going away.
"I just don't know what is wrong with me, but something is off, and I am so forgetful. I feel like I have dementia," a good friend said to me recently. I recalled that she had been sick with COVID-19 this past year.
I remembered her illness well because I had been very concerned about her. In fact, having recently observed my third anniversary of symptoms that were later determined to be long COVID, it has been particularly hard these past few years to witness those I care about letting their guard down and catching this virus.
Long COVID, also known as post-acute sequelae of COVID (PASC) or post-COVID-19 syndrome, has been defined as a constellation of symptoms, not explained by other diagnoses, that start during or after an infection consistent with SARS-CoV-2 virus and last for 12 weeks or longer. Symptoms can include severe fatigue, cognitive issues described as "brain fog," dizziness, palpitations, cough, chest pressure, dyspnea on exertion, post-exertional malaise, neuropathic pain, headaches, and/or muscle aches. Approximately 6.1% of U.S. adults are currently suffering and 15.5% have ever had some form of this condition. Long COVID symptoms seem to disproportionately impact women and individuals with a disability. In addition, higher rates of significant activity limitations from long COVID symptoms were initially noted in Black, Hispanic, and multiracial individuals, most likely due to ongoing health access and care disparities
When I reminded my friend of her prior COVID infection and the known risk of cognitive issues and long COVID, she looked confused and said, "But I was vaccinated, and my symptoms were so mild."
Why are so many people failing to consider that their new forgetfulness, persistent cough, unexplained anxiety and depression, or their crushing fatigue after engaging in normal exercise might be related to their case of COVID-19? Why are people not taking the risk of long COVID seriously? And perhaps the most important question for us as medical professionals: Are we ready to care for millions suffering from long COVID for the long haul?
Early on in the pandemic, those of us who developed long COVID had no idea what was happening. We had luckily survived the initial viral infection, some mostly asymptomatic like myself and others recovered from mild to severe illness, but then we suddenly found ourselves struggling with various symptoms and unable to function normally. There was no formal diagnosis for the condition; in fact, the term "long COVID" was initially created by the people experiencing it, many of whom were feeling dismissed by the medical community and found each other online. We were called long haulers.
Over the next couple years, researchers and medical professionals also embraced the term, and it became clear that a particular set of symptoms of long COVID met criteria for myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome
(ME/CFS). Many with long COVID will recover, but some have had years of symptoms, some have become disabled from severe ME/CFS, and others have experienced other symptoms and conditions, such as postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome and mast cell activation syndrome. Since mid-2020, there has been an estimated cumulative increase of 1.7 million Americans of working age who have reported a disability, and one study found that about 26% of those with long COVID, or about 4 million people, have altered their employment status or working hours.
Long COVID has other consequences, too. Even if long COVID sufferers can still work, they can find themselves overwhelmed with medical care. An estimated one in five people ages 18 to 64 years who have had COVID-19, and one in four over 65 years experienced an incident medical condition (cardiovascular, pulmonary, hematologic, renal, endocrine, gastrointestinal, musculoskeletal, neurologic, and/or psychiatric) that might be attributable to previous COVID-19 infection -- even following mild or asymptomatic infections. Long COVID symptoms and various post-acute sequelae in many organ systems are increased even in vaccinated individuals who experience a breakthrough infection.
In addition, anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder are common in both hospitalized and non-hospitalized patients after the onset of COVID-19 symptoms -- conditions exacerbated by the absence of a clearly understood etiology and thus no widely accepted treatments for long COVID at present.
"But I was vaccinated and my symptoms were so mild."
As a medical professional with firsthand experience of long COVID, I will continue to educate my friends, family members, patients, co-workers, and others in my immediate circle about long COVID and recommend resources. I want to ensure my healthcare colleagues are fully informed about the risk for long COVID so they can decide if they want to take extra measures to avoid infection for themselves, their families, and their patients -- or not. Some of us didn't have that choice and wish we had.
Traci Kurtzer, MD, is the medical director for Trauma Informed Care and Education in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago.
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New Data Links Pandemic’s Origins to Raccoon Dogs at Wuhan Market
Genetic samples from the market were recently uploaded to an international database and then removed after scientists asked China about them.
An international team of virus experts said on Thursday that they had found genetic data from a market in Wuhan, China, linking the coronavirus with raccoon dogs for sale there, adding evidence to the case that the worst pandemic in a century could have been ignited by an infected animal that was being dealt through the illegal wildlife trade.
The genetic data was drawn from swabs taken from in and around the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market starting in January 2020, shortly after the Chinese authorities had shut down the market because of suspicions that it was linked to the outbreak of a new virus. By then, the animals had been cleared out, but researchers swabbed walls, floors, metal cages and carts often used for transporting animal cages.
In samples that came back positive for the coronavirus, the international research team found genetic material belonging to animals, including large amounts that were a match for the raccoon dog, three scientists involved in the analysis said.
The jumbling together of genetic material from the virus and the animal does not prove that a raccoon dog itself was infected. And even if a raccoon dog had been infected, it would not be clear that the animal had spread the virus to people. Another animal could have passed the virus to people, or someone infected with the virus could have spread the virus to a raccoon dog.
But the analysis did establish that raccoon dogs — fluffy animals that are related to foxes and are known to be able to transmit the coronavirus — deposited genetic signatures in the same place where genetic material from the virus was left, the three scientists said. That evidence, they said, was consistent with a scenario in which the virus had spilled into humans from a wild animal.
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