“More than half of people recover after a year,” says infectious disease specialist Benjamin Davido

In France, 2 million people suffer from long Covid, recalls infectious disease specialist Benjamin Davido, guest on franceinfo on Saturday, while a team of Swiss researchers has just found a way to detect it in the blood.

“More than half of people recover after a year”, says Benjamin Davido, infectious disease specialist and Covid-19 referent at the Raymond-Poincaré hospital in Garches, on franceinfo Saturday January 20. According to the WHO, between 10% and 20% of people who have contracted Covid suffer or have suffered from long Covid.

This condition was previously difficult to diagnose, but a team of Swiss researchers has just found a way to detect it in the blood. Citing the results of a Public Health France study, Benjamin Davido recalls that 2 million people suffer from long Covid in France.

Franceinfo: Do ​​you consider long Covid to be a disease other than Covid-19?

Benjamin Davido: Yes now, depending on the country, the term has changed. We often call this the after-effects of Covid in the acute phase. In reality, on the one hand there are serious hospitalized forms which can complain of shortness of breath mainly linked to hospitalization and fibrosis, particularly in unvaccinated people. On the other hand, young people, mostly female, in good health, around 40 years old, who will present with lingering symptoms. In this context, it has nothing to do with the disease in the acute phase. They are two different entities.

Why do some infected people develop long Covid and others not?

This is where the miracle of science remains. Several hypotheses are made, including hyperstimulation of CD8-type lymphocyte cells called killer lymphocytes in the intestinal wall. These are reservoir phenomena which depend on the genetic profile of individuals. What we know is that the virus also plays a role since this was demonstrated with the advent of Omicron in 2022, we paradoxically have half the chance of having a long Covid, but unfortunately these new variants are much more transmissible. Which means that we have this incompressible rate of 10 to 20% of people who can present with long Covid with symptoms of variable duration.

What effects could long Covid have at 10 years or 20 years? What will its long-term effects be?

Without being complacent or irrational optimism, we still have data which shows that more than half of people are cured within one year through natural progression and especially through reinforcement of rehabilitation exercises. It is obvious that with the arrival of new mutants, mutations which are more and more contagious, the risk is to see this event happening more and more frequently, independently of the duration of the symptoms and therefore to consume care. This is what is recalled in the Covars report (Committee for Monitoring and Anticipation of Health Risks), that is to say that it is a somewhat invisible cost since we have often remained on a vision error which is that of acute Covid and only deaths. Unfortunately, we must remember that in France there are two million people who suffer from this pathology.