Explosive long-Covid numbers: Lauterbach points to new British data - "systematically recorded"
Created: 05/19/2022, 16:43
By: Martina Lippl
Long Covid: Exhausted or unfocused - many suffer from long-term consequences after a coronavirus infection.
© Joseffson/imago
Long Covid cases are being recorded more systematically in the UK.
For Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach, the data are also convincing in the case of an omicron infection.
Munich – A corona infection is usually over after two to four weeks.
Omicron infection is mostly mild.
But many patients continue to suffer.
Complaints of headaches, severe exhaustion or trouble concentrating, and loss of taste.
The term Long Covid has become established for the long-term consequences of a corona infection.
In medicine, complaints that occur more than four weeks after a Sars-CoV-2 infection are described with this term.
Much about Long Covid is still unclear.
On Monday
(May 16),
the Federal Government’s Corona Expert Council called for more help for people with long-term consequences of a Covid infection in a published statement by the committee.
In view of the increasing number of patients, however, “the current range of care is far from sufficient”.
Long Covid: Lauterbach praises systematic data from Great Britain
Data on long-Covid cases in Germany have so far been scarce.
Great Britain is way ahead in this regard.
The Federal Minister of Health, Karl Lauterbach, praised the country on Twitter.
At the same time, the SPD politician comments on a tweet by the British corona expert, Christina Pagel, on new data relating to Long Covid and an omicron infection.
"In the UK, the LongCovid cases are recorded more systematically than here," Lauterbach writes on Twitter.
In his second sentence, the health expert briefly comments on the results from Great Britain.
"It turns out that many vaccinated people are also affected in the Omicron wave.
Nevertheless, the number would be much higher without vaccination, the vaccination protects.” Hence Lauterbach’s conclusion: “Long Covid alone would be reason enough to get vaccinated.”
Corona: British expert is alarmed Long Covid data after omicron infections
Long Covid classifies Christina Pagel as a problem for many people that cannot simply be wiped off the table with numbers.
The corona expert refers to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
According to this, more than 800,000 people would suffer from Long Covid for more than a year.
400,000 people have developed Long Covid after omicron infection, according to the data.
The March wave has not yet been recorded in the statistics, emphasizes Pagel.
According to the available data, vaccination against Long Covid would protect, roughly reducing the risk by half.
Whether a corona vaccination can hopefully shorten the suffering of Long Covid is not yet foreseeable due to a lack of data, Pagel writes in her thread on Twitter.
“Nevertheless, ONS estimates that about 6 percent of people have developed an activity-limiting long covid after 3 doses of vaccine after the first omicron infection.”
Pagel is alarmed.
Another omicron wave with variants like BA.5 is already on the way.
Even if a new wave doesn't cause mass hospitalizations, she fears another wave of Long Covid.
A study on Long Covid published in the journal
The Lancet
observed patients from Wuhan for two years.
76 percent of Covid 19 patients were still suffering from symptoms six months after infection.
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Corona long-term consequences: difference between Long Covid and Post Covid
Long Covid | Long Covid is the collective term for complaints that occur four weeks after the illness phase or that appear completely new. |
|---|---|
post covid | Post Covid includes symptoms that are present more than 12 weeks after the onset of Sars-CoV-2 infection and cannot be otherwise explained. |
Covid: RKI warns of long-term consequences even after a mild course
“Long-term consequences (Long-Covid-19) can also occur after mild courses.
The greatest risk minimization with regard to a severe course is achieved by vaccination against Covid-19”, can be read on the website of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).
The German Society for Pneumology and Respiratory Medicine (DGP) estimates that around 10 percent are struggling with long-term corona effects.
However, a neurologist at the University Clinic in Essen warns of expensive long-Covid treatments.
Patients are often not healed afterwards, only poorer.
Some methods are also not without risk.
(ml)