A simple flu, COVID-19? Not at all, hammers the Dr Gaston De Serres who has just published, with colleagues, a study on the post-COVID syndrome. According to this research, nearly 68% of Quebec health care workers infected and hospitalized during the second and third waves still had symptoms of the disease 12 weeks after their infection. This percentage rises to 40% among infected and non-hospitalized caregivers.
High numbers, reports the Dr De Serres, microbiologist-infectiologist at the National Institute of Public Health of Quebec. “It’s a great illustration of how very different it is from the flu,” he said. The flu, when you’re done, you don’t drag the symptoms for months of time. »
More than 6,000 health care workers in Quebec were questioned as part of this study, the results of which were made public Thursday on the MedRxiv prepublication site. (The results have not been peer reviewed.)
Among the persistent symptoms most often cited by participants, fatigue, loss of taste or smell, shortness of breath, cognitive problems (e.g. brain fog and memory loss), headaches as well as muscle and joint pain.
Important fact: the workers surveyed in the study were infected between November 14, 2020 and May 29, 2021, a period during which the original strain of the virus was circulating and the vaccine was not yet necessarily accessible. “We have very few vaccinated individuals among our cases among health care workers,” says Dr.r Gaston DeSerres. Not because they refused vaccination, but because it was not yet available. »
The data from this study remain relevant, especially for unvaccinated people, according to Dr.r From Serres. “Obviously, maybe the Omicron, having a lower severity, the risk of developing a post-COVID syndrome is a little lower, he believes. But it’s clear that a little weaker doesn’t mean it’s ten times weaker. There should be no illusions that the Omicron, there is no problem with this virus. It’s not true. »
However, people who have received two or three doses of the vaccine should not be alarmed by these results. “You shouldn’t think that people who have been vaccinated and are now taking Omicron are necessarily going to have [des symptômes persistants dans les mêmes proportions] that we present in this article,” he adds.
The researchers did not document the prevalence of long-term COVID among healthcare workers after May 2021, since the study was completed. Impossible, therefore, to know if the caregivers struggling with symptoms at the time of the study are still overwhelmed by them.
A long-awaited study
The DD Anne Bhéreur, she lives with the long COVID. She contracted the virus in December 2020 during an outbreak in the palliative care setting where she worked. Nearly a year and a half later, she runs out of breath very quickly, has trouble concentrating and has to deal with great fatigue. Thanks to magnetic resonance imaging, she finally knew in August that she had heart damage.
The DD Bhéreur was eagerly awaiting the results of the study of Dr.r De Serres and his colleagues. “I was appalled by the results,” she says. The numbers are even higher than the conservative estimates we use. “Between 10 and 30% of infected people would suffer from long COVID, she says.
According to the DD Bhéreur, these data are “very important”, especially since they are “fairly solid”. “We really have a very large sample among people who have tested positive for COVID and who have been asked the question. [des symptômes prolongés], she explains. These are not people who come from a long COVID group, a biased sample at the starting point. »
She also points out that the data collected 12 weeks after infection is “very significant” because from that point on, “the symptom improvement curve slows down enormously” in people with long COVID. “We know that probably those who will improve then it will be over six months to two years,” she said.
The authorities must become aware of the “major problem we have on our hands”, she thinks. More services must be offered to those who suffer from this problem, pleads the DD Bhereur. “We have plenty of data in the scientific literature to start treating them, even if we don’t know everything yet,” she concludes.