Experts predict surge in long-covid in younger people once England lifts restrictions

RESEARCHERS have warned that there will be a surge in number of younger people with long Covid once England lifts remaining Covid restrictions on Monday (19), reported The Guardian.

Ministers have been told to expect at least one to two million coronavirus infections in the coming weeks, it added.

With infections rising across the country, younger adults who have not been fully vaccinated are at greater risk of developing long Covid, the report said.

Long Covid, also known as post-Covid syndrome, describes more than a dozen symptoms that can endure for months after testing positive for the virus.

Many patients experience debilitating fatigue, shortness of breath, chest pains, sleeping difficulties and problems with memory and concentration, often referred to as “brain fog”.

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"Evidence from multiple countries now suggests that a significant number of people who get Covid – whether they know they are infected or not – are at risk of developing longer-term illness," Danny Altmann, a professor of immunology at Imperial College, told The Guardian.

“From every version of Covid we’ve ever seen on the planet, we’ve got a rule of thumb that any case of Covid, whether it’s asymptomatic, mild, severe, or hospitalised, incurs a 10 to 20 per cent risk of developing long Covid, and we haven’t seen any exceptions to that."

According to Altmann, there are huge uncertainties around long Covid, including why some are more at risk than others, how long symptoms endure for, and what treatments might help.

He added: “It’s a nightmare for anyone to plan for accurately because it’s such a slippery thing to get hold of. We don’t understand where we’re headed because we’re in truly uncharted territory, but we know enough to know it looks fairly serious and fairly scary.”

Researchers have said that a large proportion of long-Covid is driven by the impact the virus has on immune defences. It appears to disturb parts of the immune system much as glandular fever does. Besides, it can trigger the creation of rogue antibodies known as “autoantibodies” that fail to fight the virus and turn on the body instead.

Recent research from the UK’s multi-institution Convalescence study found that long Covid was significantly more common in middle age (17 per cent) than in younger people (7.8 per cent).

However, long-Covid is far more severe in some than others: about 1.2 per cent of 20-year-olds and 4.8 per cent of middle-aged people interviewed for the study said their illness was serious enough to impact on their daily routine.

The study went on to find that women are 50 per cent more likely to report symptoms than men, and people with asthma are 30 per cent more likely to develop the condition than those with no history of the condition.

Dr Claire Steves, an epidemiologist and senior author on the Convalescence study at King’s College London, said the next six weeks or so would be particularly risky as England opens up, with so many young adults not yet fully vaccinated.

According to her, vaccines offer hope for protecting people against long Covid as well as acute Covid.

“We are seeing a very clear reduction in the risk of long Covid in all age groups if you have had two shots of vaccine. We know the vaccines really work to reduce your risk of getting infected in the first place, and then if you are unlucky enough to get Covid we are showing your risk of long Covid is much reduced," Dr Steves told The Guardian.