Expert explains serious long-covid symptoms - we usually don't realize it until much later

Created: 01/13/2022, 05:19 AM

By: Patrick Huljina

Gundula Roßbach, President of the German Pension Insurance Association, reports on the symptoms of Long Covid.

(Archive image) © Soeren Stache / dpa

Long Covid continues to hit those affected severely months after their corona infection.

There is "by far not just one clinical picture," explains one expert.

Berlin - The dangers of an infection with the corona virus are manifold.

Some are obvious, others are not even perceived as such at first.

In addition to the symptoms that occur immediately after a corona infection, Long Covid can cause problems for those who are sick months later.

Affected people are sometimes completely torn from their professional lives.

Long Covid: "Far from being just a disease"

According to current experiences from rehab, long-covid sufferers are confronted with completely different serious symptoms.

There is "by far not just one clinical picture," said Gundula Roßbach.

"In our facilities we have to deal with a whole host of different symptoms," said the President of the German Pension Insurance Association to the German Press Agency.

"We are increasingly noticing that people are not only currently suffering from Covid-19, but that many later develop the Post or Long Covid Syndrome," continued Roßbach.

"Many patients first have to realize that it is Long Covid," she explained.

Long Covid: heart problems, shortness of breath, anxiety, depression - various symptoms

In December, Mainz University Medical Center published a study on Long Covid.

According to this, around 40 percent of those infected with corona still have symptoms more than six months later.

As the results of the study show, the syndrome also affects infected people with mild or asymptomatic corona courses. 

"The complaints are unspecific - including heart problems, concentration problems, shortness of breath, anxiety disorders, depression or chronic fatigue," said Roßbach.

Some of those affected have been torn out of their professional lives.

Sometimes months after the actual illness, you could no longer concentrate properly and, for example, no longer understand texts.

Long Covid treatment: "We are often breaking new ground here"

When treating those affected by Long Covid, depending on the symptoms, rehabilitation clinics specifically for cardiology, neurology or psychosomatics could be considered.

"In many cases we are breaking new ground here because there has been a lack of well-founded empirical values," said Roßbach.

"But we are helping with the research, and we are noticing that the rehabilitation of the pension insurance, with all its instruments, is helping the people of Long Covid."

After around 10,000 cases last year, the President of the German Pension Insurance Association expects a further increase in the number. In view of almost a million rehab services a year, it is not a worrying order of magnitude. Roßbach reported that the pension insurance currently also supports private rehabilitation clinics with several hundred million euros a year. "This enables us to stabilize and consolidate the rehab landscape during the Corona period." According to the current status, support will run until March.

The study by the Mainz University Medical Center also showed differences between the sexes with regard to Long Covid.

The example of an eight-year-old from Austria shows that children and young people can also suffer from the syndrome.

A 21-year-old woman from the Erding district is in a wheelchair because of long covid.