About 10 to 15% of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 developed so-called long Covid, a series of symptoms that persist months after becoming ill. Some have seen their lives turned upside down for more than two years now.
“Covid infection is not trivial, long Covid is a reality. The first message is to avoid catching Covid”. The clear warning, at the microphone of France Bleu RCFM this Tuesday, October 31, comes from Professor Éric Guedj, head of the department of biophysics and nuclear medicine at AP-HM (Marseille), while a new vaccination campaign against Covid-19 began on October 2. It is also in these services that the diagnosis of long-term Covid for Calenn, 10 years old, who lives in the Paris region, was established. Backtracking.
Difficult screening
In November 2021, Calenn fell ill with Covid. At first, “It really looked like a little nasopharyngitis and we thought it would go away quickly”remembers the young girl. “After a few days, I started having severe stomach pain. It woke me up at night, I couldn’t sleep”. For her part, Héloïse, her mother, remembers: “We first called our attending physician who was helpless. Secondly, I called SOS Médecins, who redirected us to the Samu and then to the emergency room.” From hospital to hospital, the origin of his pain remains unclear, “They said it was to get attention. They tried a lot of things: morphine, oxygen… We understood that they didn’t believe me”remembers, bitterly, the young girl.
His mother, who realizes on social networks that many parents are faced with this situation, then uses strong means. “I called all the pediatric infectious diseases services in France one by one until I found the one in Timone where there had been studies carried out on children sick with long Covid”. Four months after her daughter’s first infection, they both left for Marseille, so that her daughter could take a battery of exams. The diagnosis of long Covid is established.
At the other end of France, in the Vosges, Adeline, 35-year-old manager of a cleaning company, and her partner contracted Covid in April 2021. “At the beginning, we were thought to be crazy”, she remembers. After having been “very ill for a month and a half”it will take 6 months for the diagnosis of long Covid to be made, while “the weeks where things are going well, and the weeks where things are not going well, stomach problems and anxiety” and still very tired.
Very varied symptoms
The WHO defines long Covid when, three months after infection, there are still “symptoms which persist for at least two months, in patients who have had a proven or only suspected Covid infection”recalls Professor Éric Guedj.
“The symptoms are numerous”, recalls the Marseille professor. The main thing remains fatigue, “the patients are exhausted”but also “cognitive problems, attention problems, memory problems. Patients talk about brain fog” explains the specialist, who also mentions the loss of smell and shortness of breath. “Heart problems are also possible”he adds.
Lives turned upside down
“Approximately 10 to 15% of infected patients will develop long Covid”, explains Éric Guedj. And these symptoms disrupt the lives of patients. For her part, Calenn, whose heart races whenever she changes position, uses a wheelchair. Last year, she entered 6th grade and tried to go to school for an hour a day. Too tired. This year, she is following Cned courses remotely, and only goes to college once or twice a week. “I love college, I wish I could go there as much as I want”regrets the teenager.
For their part, if Adeline and her companion continue to work, “In the afternoon, we try to rest, to sleep at least an hour”. If they try to maintain a social life despite everything, no more evenings that end at 3 or 4 a.m., “otherwise it takes three or four days to recover.”
The consequences of long Covid also extend to the relatives of the sick. “I took partial parental leave”, explains Hortense, Calenn’s mother, who now works part-time for National Education. “My partner also works part-time as a theater teacher and actor. We had to organize ourselves. Our entire family life has been turned upside down by the illness.” And to take the last family vacation as an example, “this summer, we had to arrange with the company that rents us an oxygen concentrator for a device on site, and for the vacation spot to be accessible to people with reduced mobility.”
Waiting for treatment
For the moment, only the symptoms of long Covid are covered. For Calenn, in addition to oxygen, a stimulation box allows him to alleviate his stomach pain, and physiotherapy sessions allow a minimum of body activity. “I know Calenn can little slowly recover, but it would be a great help if there were treatments developed”, Hortense hopes.
“We will have to wait for advances in research and therapeutic trials to hope to have a curative treatment that can act on the decline of the disease,” notes Professor Éric Guedj. While waiting for these treatments, the long Covid marks. “I’m not like I used to be” judge Adeline, “there is a gap between the Adeline of before and the Adeline of now”estimates the young woman.