If you have long covid the pandemic is far from being over

A video interview with a patient advocate features the burden of long COVID and how we can address it

According to the World Health Organisation, 17 million people in the WHO European Region experienced long COVID in the first two years of the pandemic.

But what is exactly long COVID?

We asked Chantal Britt, President of the non-profit association Long COVID Switzerland, to shed light on this topic.

She told us that long COVID is when you continue to have symptoms, even long after infection (generally after four weeks). You may experience fatigue, sleeping problems, pain or even cognitive deficits.

"The question is really whether people will get better or not" said Britt "but what we can see now is that about half of the people do not recover".

Long COVID is therefore expected to have a dramatic impact on society, in relation to the reduction of the working population, and on the health care system, in relation to the requests for assistance from people affected by long COVID.

It is therefore important to raise awareness about long COVID on the population and to invest money for more research on its origins and treatment options.

Watch her video-interview here

Provided by iCube Programme