References
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 150 million confirmed COVID-19 cases had been reported by May 1, 2021, with an average death rate of 2.1%. The coronavirus infection consequences to the body remain for a long time. Articles and studies on post-COVID-19 syndrome are flooding in.
"Post-COVID-19 syndrome" was included in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) as «Post-COVID-19 condition» at the beginning of 2021. Thus, "post-COVID-19 syndrome" implies changing, wandering and inconsistent symptoms lasting more than 12 weeks, which are the result of only having had the coronavirus infection.
According to research centers in Greece (Athens), symptoms that last for more than three weeks (four weeks, according to researchers at Indiana and US Universities) after being diagnosed with COVID-19 are already considered as post-COVID-19 syndrome.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), post-COVID-19 syndrome is an umbrella term for ongoing, recurring, or newly emerging symptoms and clinical conditions with a wide range of physical and mental health consequences that some patients experience four or more weeks after being infected with SARS-CoV-2, including patients who had initially mild or asymptomatic COVID-19. The disease incidence ranges from 10% to 35%, but is up to 85% among hospitalized patients.
According to the "Recommendations for managing patients with coronavirus infection COVID-19 in the acute phase and with post-COVID-19 syndrome on an outpatient basis" of the Moscow City Scientific Society of Physicians, separating acute COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 syndrome is simply impossible from a classification perspective, since one condition merges into another, becoming a continuous process.
The British (National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence, NICE) classify COVID-19 as:
Symptoms of post-COVID-19
The most common post-COVID-19 symptoms are:
More than a third of patients with post-COVID-19 syndrome have already got comorbidities, the most common of which are hypertension and diabetes mellitus. The pathogenesis of post-COVID-19 syndrome is multi-factorial. Long-term inflammation is key factor and can cause some neurological sequelae, cognitive dysfunction, and other symptoms. Other pathogenetic mechanisms that are implicated in post-COVID-19 syndrome include immune-related vascular dysfunction, thromboembolism, and nervous system dysfunction.
Above-mentioned Moscow City Scientific Society of Physicians and the Republican Center for Healthcare Development (Republic of Kazakhstan) classifies post-COVID symptoms:
Treatment
According to foreign studies (the US and Indiana University), the recommendations for relieving conditions caused by post-COVID-19 syndrome:
The Moscow City Scientific Society of Physicians suggests the following characteristics of the methods of post-COVID syndrome treatment:
Apparently, long-COVID treatment still brings more questions than answers. Contradictory recommendations, diverse clinical manifestations in patients - all this gives room for drawing up individual treatment and rehabilitation programs. To conclude, we are now living in a post-COVID -19 pandemic, and scientific data will gradually accumulate.
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