A patient is treated by Dr Stephan Faux and Dr Morgan Hee at a long COVID unit in St Vincent’s Hospital,Sydney.Credit:Louise Kennerley
The report’s researchers believe there are significant similarities between long COVID and some chronic health conditions,such as myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and dysautonomia,a disorder of the autonomic nervous system.
Around half of the people living with long COVID meet the criteria for ME/CFS,the report says.
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Three of the report’s authors – Hannah Davis,Lisa McCorkell and Julia Moore Vogel – have experienced long COVID themselves. Their co-author is American cardiologist Eric Topol.
“We need a comprehensive long COVID research agenda that builds on the existing knowledge from ME/CFS,dysautonomia and other viral-onset conditions,” the authors said.
“Robust clinical trials must be a priority moving forward as patients currently have few treatment options.”
Victoria’s chief health officer,Brett Sutton,called the research “incredibly important” and hoped the review would raise awareness and progress research into chronic conditions such as ME/CFS and postural tachycardia syndrome (PoTS).
Crabb said doctors should believe patients who present with long COVID because “the accuracy with which somebody self-reports is tremendous”.
“Long COVID is not some vague mysterious thing that you can palm off as psychosomatic,though many do. It is a very clear clinical illness with a biochemical and cellular underpinning,” he said.
Burnet Institute chief executive officer Brendan Crabb.
Another key finding of the report is that those with long COVID often have “exhausted” or reduced levels of T cells,white blood cells involved in the immune response that target antigens.
Professor Stephen Duckett,an honorary enterprise professor at Melbourne University’s School of Population and Global Health,welcomed the first thorough review of long COVID research.
He said it was vital that the upcomingAustralian Centre for Disease Control has a major focus on chronic conditions stemming from infection,such as long COVID and ME/CFS.
Duckett’s daughter developed long COVID in late 2020,and he said that throughout 2021,he was surprised there was little discussion about how long COVID could affect the health system.
“One of the consequences of the most recent pandemic is this mushrooming and dramatic escalation in the incidence of chronic complex conditions,which we really need to be getting our act together on,” Duckett said.
“One of the implications[of long COVID] is that predictions of demand,planning for health services of the future may need to look quite different from the way we thought.”
A federal parliamentary inquiry into long COVID and repeated COVID infections closed its submissions in November 2022.