case. Chronic Covid: symptoms, diagnosis, after effects… Are many people sick without knowing it?

“This is the north face of the epidemic.” Long Covid has affected at least two million people in France in recent years. Four years after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, French people suffering from post-Covid syndrome (PCS) represent about 10% of those infected, according to statistics put forward by the Committee for the Surveillance and Anticipation of Health Risks (Covers).

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One of the first doctors in France to take a keen interest in chronic covid was Dr. Jerome Larche speaks of a global issue. “Millions of patients all over the world are affected by symptoms for a long time,” confides the person who was for a time referred to this subject with ARS Occitani. “We are still seeing people who were infected in the first months of the epidemic and who are living with prolonged, disabling, debilitating symptoms…”

Invasion of the body

According to Covers, SARS-CoV-2 “enters human cells by interacting with its receptor on the cell surface”. It is thus able to affect “the nasal cavity, lungs, gastrointestinal tract and eye, as well as the capillaries of the central nervous system, heart, pancreas and adrenal glands”. An invasion of the body that brings together the necessary conditions for the occurrence of the post-infectious syndrome. The committee recalls that PCS is indeed an “organic reality” and not a somatoform disorder – a mental disorder that focuses more on physical symptoms.

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Of the roughly 2 million French patients, “there are probably several hundred thousand patients who have a severe form. That is, who have developed some kind of chronic illness associated with post-Covid”, explains Jerome Larch. But since the list of symptoms is so long, it has become difficult to determine the number of patients. According to the doctor, about 200 different ones are counted. “Which allows us to say that chronic Covid is not an organ disease but a systemic disease.”

Countless number of features

After contracting Covid, people with milder forms may also experience symptoms. These symptoms are numerous, varied and may fluctuate over several weeks or months. In some cases it becomes extremely difficult to establish a direct correlation with prolonged covid. “Most patients suffer from asthenia, that is, extreme fatigue,” Dr. Jerome Larche lists, “there are respiratory or cardiological problems and neurological problems and often of a neurocognitive type”. Indeed, some patients have trouble remembering, concentrating, and finding words. In addition, there are digestive, joint, muscular, skin symptoms…so many symptoms that make the diagnosis “extremely difficult” to become a “diagnosis of prevention”.

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Dr. For Jerome Larche, “the challenge was, beyond understanding the disease, to be able to take care of people, try to diagnose, try to reduce their symptoms and allow them to at least resume a normal life. As a reminder: long from Covid A person likely to be affected meets several criteria. She must have covid, which is documented by PCR and symptoms persist for more than four to eight weeks. In this case, consultation with a general practitioner should be a reflection.