Day: February 20, 2023

When COVID-19 hit in 2020, Ghenya Grondin of Waltham, Massachusetts, was a postpartum doula – a person charged with helping young couples navigate the first weeks of their newborn child’s life at home.

Grondin, now aged 44, was infected with SARS-CoV-2 in mid-March of that year – before there were tests, before social distancing or masks, and many months before the medical community recognized long COVID as a complication of COVID-19.

She is part of a community of first-wave long-haulers who faced a new disease without a roadmap or support from the medical establishment.

Three years later, at least 65 million people worldwide are estimated to have long COVID, according to an evidence review published last month in Nature Reviews Microbiology. More than 200 symptoms have been linked to the syndrome – including extreme fatigue, difficulty thinking, headaches, dizziness when standing, sleep problems, chest pain, blood clots, immune dysregulation, and even diabetes.

There are no proven treatments but research is underway.

People infected later in the pandemic had the benefit of vaccination, which “protects at least to some degree” from long COVID, said Dr. Bruce Levy, a Harvard pulmonologist and a co-principal investigator of the National Institute of Health’s $1.15 billion U.S. RECOVER trial, which aims to characterize and find cures for the disease.

“The initial variant of the virus caused a more severe illness than we’re seeing currently in most patients,” he said.

According to the University of Washington’s Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation, in the first two years of the pandemic women were twice as likely as men to develop long COVID, and 15% of all of those affected at three months continued to experience symptoms beyond 12 months.

An analysis of thousands of health records by the RECOVER trial found that non-Hispanic white women in wealthier areas were more likely than others to have a long COVID diagnosis. Researchers said that likely reflected disparities in access to health care, and suggests that many cases of long COVID among people of color are not being diagnosed.

Grondin grew concerned when she continued to have symptoms three months after her initial infection – but there was no name for it then.

“I just kept saying to my husband, something isn’t right,” she said.

Like her fellow long-haulers, she has experienced a host of symptoms, including fatigue, sleep apnea, pain, cognitive dysfunction, and in her case, a brain aneurysm. She described a frightening moment when she was driving a car with her toddler in the back and had a seizure that left her in the path of oncoming traffic.

She has since been diagnosed with long COVID and can no longer work.

“It just feels like a constant punch in the face,” said Grondin.

Scientists are still working out why some people infected with COVID develop long-term symptoms, but syndromes like this are not new. Other infections such as Lyme disease can result in long-term symptoms, many of which overlap with long COVID.

Leading theories of the root causes of long COVID include the virus or viral proteins remaining in the tissues of some individuals; the infection causing an autoimmune response; or the virus reactivating latent viruses, leading to inflammation that damages tissue.

Kate Porter, 38, of Beverly, Massachusetts, a project manager for a financial services company, believes she was infected on a flight back from Florida in late March of 2020.

She had daily fevers for seven months, muscle weakness, shortness of breath, and excruciating nerve pain.

“I don’t think people realize how brutal physically everything was,” she said. In one of her darker moments, Porter recalled, “I cried on the floor begging for something to take me peacefully. I’ve never been like that.”

Frustrated by the lack of answers from a list of 10 specialists she has seen, Porter has explored alternative medicine. “It has opened me up to other remedies,” she said.

Although her health is much improved now, she still suffers from near daily migraines and neck pain she fears may never go away.

Genie Stevens, 65, a director of climate education, got infected while traveling from her home in Santa Fe to Cape Cod in late March 2020 to visit her mother, and never left. “It completely upended my life,” she said.

She went to an emergency department seeking tests and was told there were none – the typical answer in the spring of 2020, when scientists were scrambling to understand the nature of the virus and tests were being rationed. She was sent home to manage on her own.

A lifelong practitioner of meditation, Stevens took solace there, finding it eased her symptoms.

Confined to her bed that spring, she focused on an ancient crabapple tree outside her room. “I watched every bud unfurl.”

Although largely recovered, Stevens still has flare-ups of brain fog, exhaustion and high-pitched ringing in her ears when she pushes too hard. “This is the astoundingly maddening part of the illness. I feel totally fine, and then bam.”

Source: Voice Of America

(Lilongwe, 20 February 2023): The United Nations and humanitarian partners in Malawi today launched a Flash Appeal to assist 4 million people, including 56,000 refugees and asylumseekers, who have been hardest-hit by, and are at highest-risk of, cholera, in support of the Government-led response.

The appeal—which calls for US$45.3 million for the next five months—comes as the numbers of cholera cases and deaths in Malawi have increased exponentially since the beginning of January 2023, worsening what is already the deadliest cholera outbreak in the country’s history. “Despite all the efforts taken since the first cholera case was reported in Malawi nearly one year ago, the situation remains of grave concern. Every day, the number of cases increases, and more people die,” said the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Malawi, Rebecca Adda-Dontoh. “However, the good news is that, while cholera is highly transmissible, it is also easily treatable when cases are caught early and preventable when communities have access to clean water and good sanitation.”

The Malawi Cholera Flash Appeal—which is launched to coincide with Government of Malawi’s Cholera campaign—aims to address the most immediate needs of people impacted by the outbreak through an integrated response that brings together health and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), while ensuring communities are engaged, prepared and supported to respond to and reduce cholera. Acknowledging that the outbreak has taken a devastating toll on the hardest-hit communities, the Flash Appeal also calls for support to essential health, nutrition, education and protection services in affected and high-risk locations.

Remarking at the launch of the Flash Appeal, Ms. Adda-Dontoh said, “I had the privilege of joining His Excellency President Chakwera and Honorable Minister of Health in visiting three cholera treatment centres in Lilongwe last week, where I spoke with health-care workers who requested more support to treat the endless flow of patients they are receiving. When left untreated, cholera can kill in less than twelve hours, but with simple IV fluids, most patients are rapidly on the road to recovery. No one should die of cholera in 2023 and the world can, and must, step-up to help Malawians in their time of need.”

The current cholera outbreak, which started in March 2022, has affected all 29 districts of Malawi and is the largest outbreak in the country in the past two decades. The number of cases increased dramatically at the start of the rainy season in November 2022 and, as of 18 February 2023, nearly 45,000 cases had been reported, including nearly 1,450 deaths. Experts anticipate that, unless urgent, intensified action is taken to scale-up the response, between 64,000 and 100,000 cases could be reported in the next three months.

The UN and its partners in Malawi urgently call on donors to fund the Flash Appeal and enable them to work swiftly in support of the Government-led response to contain the outbreak and prevent further, avoidable, loss of life.

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs