Doctor sounds note of caution for Covid recovered patients

Vijayawada: Covid warriors should be careful about "Long Covid" which is also referred to as post-acute Covid-19, chronic Covid-19 or post-Covid syndrome.

Covid patients need to understand that after the second wave started, there are reports of Covid infected suffering from this syndrome. The syndrome generally refers to symptoms that develop during or after acute Covid-19 illness.

The symptoms will continue for about three months. Dr Shafi (DM cardiology), Director of Tulips charitable foundation, Hyderabad explains that the symptoms of Long-Covid and how to recover from it. Speaking to The Hans India Dr Shafi said the Covid infected persons need not panic about the Covid syndrome.

He suggested patients to stay active and always keep vigil on the changes in the body, symptoms and visit a doctor in case the inflammation or health problems arise out of Covid syndrome.

"Symptoms may occur from few weeks to 3 months that includes post viral fatigue, diarrhoea, loss of appetite, loss of taste, dry cough, shortness of breath and in very few suffer from cognitive dysfunction. Few may also suffer from psychological trauma post covid," he explained.

He further said that not all Covid patients face these problems and the symptoms may differ from person to person. "The Covid-19 infected will suffer from fatigue (extreme weakness) and this problem would persist for several weeks depending on the fitness and immunity of the person," he added.

How to overcome this?

Suggesting Covid patients the doctor said that there is nothing much to worry as they may recover naturally because the body has ability to recover from illness. If someone faces some serious health problems or disorders, they must consult the specialist doctor for the treatment.

The recovered patients should take good nutritional food to increase immunity and always check the temperatures, oxygen levels and general health condition.

As per ICMR data, reinfection is rare and less than 5 percent. But unanswerable is how reinfection would behave differently from known dynamics of virus. The reinfection will also depend on the immunity levels, age and physical condition of the infected.

He also said that vaccination is no magic bullet. It takes time for antibodies to develop. Most vaccines are effective upto 95 percent. Post vaccination infection is milder and not severe. So, the vaccinated persons are getting mild infection compared to others.

However, Dr Shafi said that the dynamics of Covid in children is still not known in detail. We may get answers in next few months. "I think the disease dynamics in children are still not well understood,".

But there some reports of children are getting infected with Covid. But the number is very small compared to adults. We need to be cautious and gear up to meet the challenge of third wave as experts say is likely to affect the children more, he added.