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HEALTH-VIRUS-EUROPE
Long-term Covid should be ‘clear priority’ for authorities: WHO
COPENHAGEN, Feb 25, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – A senior World Health Organization
official on Thursday urged national authorities to make a priority of
understanding the long-term consequences of coronavirus infections as some
people show worrying symptoms months later.
“It’s a clear priority for WHO, and of the utmost importance. It should be
for every health authority,” Hans Kluge, regional director for WHO Europe,
told a press conference.
While some studies are beginning to shed light on the illness, it is still
unclear why some patients with Covid-19 continue to show symptoms for months,
including tiredness, brain fog, and cardiac and neurological disorders.
“The burden is real and it is significant. About one in 10 Covid-19
sufferers remain unwell after 12 weeks, and many for much longer,” Kluge
said.
Noting that reports of long-term symptoms came soon after the disease was
first discovered, he said that some patients were “met with disbelief or lack
of understanding.”
Kluge stressed that those patients “need to be heard if we are to
understand the long-term consequences and recovery from Covid-19.”
WHO Europe called on European countries and institutions to “come together
as part of an integrated research agenda,” harmonising data collection tools
and study protocols.
The regional director also said he would bring together the 53 member
countries of the WHO’s European region, including several countries in
Central Asia, “to set out a regional strategy.”
In early February, WHO organised the first virtual seminar devoted to so
called “Long Covid,” in order to properly define it, give it a formal name
and harmonise methods for studying it.
BSS/AFP/IJ/1805 hrs