Q: “My sister-in-law lost her taste and smell after having COVID-19 in December 2020. When she was able to have contact with a healthcare professional, she was told that he did not. there was nothing that could be done and that there were no established services to treat people with long-term side effects. However, these losses are seen as a major handicap. […] Perhaps there is a care program, but the information is not circulating? ”
France Girard
A: Your question is very relevant, because what we still see today is that the long form of the disease remains both mysterious and insufficiently explored.
What exactly are we talking about when we talk about the long COVID?
Of all the symptoms which persist “three months after infection and which cannot be explained by another cause”, explains the DD Thao Huynh, epidemiologist and cardiologist at the McGill University Health Center, who has made the study of this disease a priority.
She reports that it is difficult to accurately estimate the rate of COVID-19 patients who develop the long form of the disease. “It depends on the country, some speak of 15%, others of 25%. ”
But what is certain is that it is not a myth. Those who have it have symptoms that can be very serious and show up more than two years after a first infection.
“I have patients who have done triathlons, international level athletes, who still have zero quality of life today,” says Thao Huynh.
To answer your question specifically, then, there are, yes, “established services” for those who suffer from it. The work of the DD Thao Huynh is proof of this.
But the offer is obviously variable geometry in the province.
Among the other initiatives already set up, we should also note the Co-Vie project, of the integrated health and social services center (CISSS) of Montérégie-Ouest.
The idea is to make the population aware of the disease, to enable those who suffer from it to manage it better, to collaborate in research and to develop the range of services.
The Deputy Director of the Multidisciplinary Services Directorate – Quality and Evolution of Practice, Sophie Poirier, explains to us that it all started with a research project led by Simon Décary, aimed at offering rehabilitation services for patients suffering from long-term COVID. .
An important observation was quickly made: the need was there and it was pressing.
“We decided to develop the service offer so that it is accessible as quickly as possible and that it is a way of educating the population about all this,” says Mme Pear tree.
It is useful to know that, in particular, she points out that symptom self-management sheets can be found on the Co-Vie project website.
A post-COVID-19 research clinic was also set up at the Montreal Clinical Research Institute last February.
Even if we speak first and foremost, here, of research, this includes “a clinical evaluation with a certain management and also the possibility of recommendation to specialists, according to the complications detected in the participants in the protocol”, explains the director of communications of the establishment, Florence Meney.
The fact remains that Quebec generally lacks resources for long-term COVID, believes Thao Huynh.
It is necessary, according to her, to remedy this. And Quebec would have every advantage to see it quickly.
“It would be important for the government to devote resources and structures to support these patients – including physiotherapy, occupational therapy, social work, cardiovascular clinic. ”