Government funds research into long Covid and support for sufferers

Tuesday, 15 March 2022

Dr Ian Town, the Ministry of Health’s chief science adviser, announced on Tuesday the government was funding rear each into long Covid that would help inform experts on how to treat sufferers.

A group will be established to advise on how New Zealand’s health system will treat potentially thousands of sufferers of long Covid.

The term ‘long Covid’ is used to describe symptoms that linger or develop beyond an acute infection of Covid-19.

“Our plan is to provide evidence based guidelines for our health practitioners – both in NGOs, primary care and secondary care to help guide the recovery in patients with these ongoing problems,” Dr Ian Town, the Ministry of Health’s chief science adviser said on Tuesday.

Symptoms of long Covid included fatigue, headache, cognitive impairment, chest pain, weakness, and loss of taste and smell. Many of the symptoms appeared similar to those characterised by chronic fatigue, Town said.

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“There are a number of folk who will continue to develop symptoms or continue to experience symptoms which will go on for a number of weeks. Once it gets to about 12 weeks then this term ‘long Covid’ starts to be used.”

Town said questions remained about whether long Covid was caused by an immune response, or the virus affecting the brain itself. Researchers had demonstrated the brain being affected by the virus.

“The researchers were able to show there were changes in the brain area that is responsible for the processing of smell… and also the area where the brain is involved with memory processing.”

The group will be headed by Chief Allied Health Officer, Martin Chadwick.

The ministry was also funding researchers at Victoria University of Wellington to study the impacts of Covid in New Zealand, whose findings would be used to help inform rehabilitation strategies.

The scope would range across long and short-term effects, and the health and wellbeing of those who caught it. Eight thousand invitations to participate in the Victoria University group had been sent to people who had contracted Covid.

While many people’s experience of the Omicron variant was of mild illness, some people would have ongoing symptoms. Town said long Covid could manifest in people who had mild and sever symptoms while infected.

Town said it was early days in understanding how long Covid might affect children.

The Ministry of Health website says a US National Institutes of Health review published in March last year showed at least one in ten people who contracted Covid experienced one or more symptoms for 12 weeks or more. The website cited the findings from the United Kingdom that of 110 hospitalised patients, 74 per cent reported at least one symptom remaining eight to 12 weeks after their diagnosis.

Current treatment for long Covid was “similar to what we would do with chronic fatigue syndrome”, focusing on a rehabilitation framework. A slower recovery was accepted as being the best course of action - not trying to rush back to work and sometimes limiting physical activity, Town said.

People showing symptoms of long Covid should seek help from their GP or health provider.