Tribulations of Covid long-haulers
Eight months ago, Charity Mbithe tested positive for Covid-19. As the doctor confirmed the results, a million thoughts raced through her mind.
Was this the beginning of the end? After all, the pandemic had ravaged the nation with survival chances at 50-50. Ms Mbithe, however, bravely fought the monster and in just a month, she had turned negative.
But the joy of beating the virus was short-lived. Seven months after turning negative, she still exhibits symptoms. Scientists call it long Covid, or, ‘long-haulers’. The question is: How long will the long last? The long-haulers wonder.
“It began with a mild headache, and fatigue. Walking to the bathroom felt like a journey,” says Ms Mbithe, 35. Rapidly, it graduated.
Mild case
At first, she lost her sense of smell and taste, then dry coughs became regular. “I felt sick and scared. But I just didn’t want to link it with Covid-19 yet. My test took a week before I was confirmed. On August 3 last year, I felt the world crashing down on me,” she recalls.
She went into self-isolation at home and began treatment. Hers was a mild case that did not need to be in a hospital.
“Two weeks later, a second test returned positive. It meant I could not go back to work; I had to resign because they felt I was not giving my all. But after two more weeks of treatment, I turned negative. Surprisingly, Covid effects did not go away. I later got a new job but could not concentrate. My head always felt light and I was too forgetful. I had to quit the new job,” offers Ms Mbithe.
As the coronavirus symptoms continued, her friends advised her to see a specialist.
“My doctor put me on supplements like multivitamin, Zinc and Vitamin C. I have also tried traditional herbs but nothing has worked. One time I went to town and I could not remember a building that I used to frequent before. Another day I felt so tired, I had to ask a smokie salesperson to let me use his chair so I could regain some energy,” she says.
At home, she depends on her family members to help her with some kitchen chores, such as cooking.
“I was once boiling eggs and forgot about it completely, all the water evaporated and the eggs cracked. I have had to develop a new liking for things because this is my new world, I wish people could understand that I am not like them anymore,” she says.
Apart from financial consultation, she is now a beekeeper, but until her taste buds go back to normal, honey will only be sweet ‘theoretically’.
Last week, a fellow long-hauler created the Long Covid Kenya Support Group on Facebook, where Ms Mbithe finds solace in people facing similar challenges. It has 15 members so far.
In November last year, Dr Igor Koralnik, chief of neuro-infectious disease and global neurology at Northwestern Medicine, had written a paper on the neurological effects of Covid-19.
In his paper, he had promised to follow up on Covid-19 patients whose symptoms persisted and on March 23 this year.
The paper published in the journal Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology, has revealed that more women compared to men are likely to be long-haulers.
“The definition of long Covid-19 is not settled. For the purposes of this study, we defined long Covid-19, also known as post-acute sequelae of Covid-19 (PASC), as symptoms lasting more than six weeks given population surveys indicating a substantial majority of patients fully recovered by 4-6 weeks,” states the study.
“These data suggest that long-haulers might have better insight into their fatigue than cognitive quality of life, and that insight might differ between groups. These observations also raise the possibility that fatigue contributes to cognitive dysfunction in long-haulers or that symptoms such as fatigue, depression, or anxiety might influence patients’ perception or experience of their cognitive function. We are now studying the role of anxiety and depression, as well as quality of sleep, to determine their contribution to “brain fog” and fatigue of non-hospitalised long-haulers.”
"Most people with long Covid had limited and transient (short-lived) respiratory symptoms. We think that those people do not have persistent infection but develop an auto-immune syndrome triggered by the virus. We are researching their T cell response (key players in immune response to a viral infection like Covid-19) to SARS-Cov2 in my lab to understand why. The fact that 70 per cent are women and 16 per cent had autoimmune diseases before Covid is consistent with this hypothesis, since women are more likely than men to have autoimmune diseases," Dr Koralnik told Nation.Africa in an email response.
Dr Anthony Etyang, a specialist in internal medicine and epidemiology, says little is known about treating long haulers. Specialists can only take care of a symptom at a time because just beyond describing the fact that people carry on with symptoms for a really long period, the science behind it is still vague.
“There’s no known treatment for long haulers yet. The only possible treatment that is emerging and is yet to be confirmed is receiving the vaccine, apparently, when some people get the vaccine, long Covid symptoms disappear,” says Dr Etyang.
“For people with anosmia (loss of smell), they can be trained…say, telling them this is an onion and this is how it smells so they keep repeating that kind of training and then after a while they can actually get better.”
As for other diseases, such as Ebola, Dr Etyang says some asymptomatic people “get prolonged symptoms and shedding”. That means they are asymptomatic, “but still able to transmit the disease way beyond recovery”.
An example is the new outbreak in Guinea that is believed to have been caused by someone who had recovered five years ago.
Dr Shenal Shah, a specialist in Integrative and Functional Medicine, says long Covid is characterised by an inflammation in the heart of the central nervous system. It affects multiple organs in healthy individuals.
“In functional medicine, what we find is that there is a common trend of triggers for many viral infections. So, that’s where we start from – looking at microbiomes (tiny organisms such as bacteria) which exist silently in the body,” she observes.
She urges people not only go to hospital when they are unwell but for ensure general body check-up even when in good shape.
“Resilience is so key in our ever changing environment. We need to be prepared for the next epidemics and pandemic. What are you doing to keep your body strong? Are you eating the right foods? Are you making sure that your inflammatory levels are low? Are you getting tested to stay healthy rather than sick?” poses Dr Shah. BY DAILY NATION

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