“More than half of people recover after a year,” says infectious disease specialist Benjamin Davido.

In France, 2 million people suffer from chronic covid, recalls infectious disease expert Benjamin Davido, guest on franceinfo on Saturday, when a team of Swiss researchers found a way to detect it in blood.

“More than half recover after one year”, says Benjamin Davido, infectious disease specialist and Covid-19 referent at the Raymond-Poincare hospital in Garches, on franceinfo on Saturday, January 20. According to the WHO, 10% to 20% of people who have contracted Covid have or have had Covid for a long time.

The condition was previously difficult to diagnose, but a team of Swiss researchers has found a way to detect it in blood. Citing the results of a study by Public Health France, Benjamin Davido recalls that 2 million people in France suffer from chronic covid.

Franceinfo: Do ​​you consider chronic covid a disease other than covid-19?

Benjamin Davido: Yes now, depending on the country, the term has changed. We often call this the after-effect of Covid in the acute phase. In fact, on the one hand there are severe forms hospitalized which may mainly complain of respiratory distress associated with hospitalization and fibrosis, especially in unvaccinated people. On the other hand, younger people, mostly women, in good health, around 40 years of age, will present with delayed symptoms. In this regard, it has nothing to do with the disease in the acute phase. They are two different entities.

Why do some infected people develop long-term covid and others do not?

This is where the miracle of science resides. Several hypotheses are made, including hyperstimulation of CD8-type lymphocyte cells known as killer lymphocytes in the intestinal wall. These are reservoir events that depend on the genetic profile of individuals. What we know is that the virus also plays a role as this was shown with the arrival of Omicron in 2022, paradoxically we have half the chance of having a chronic covid, but unfortunately these new types are more contagious. Which means we have this unexplained rate of 10 to 20% of people who may present with prolonged covid with symptoms of variable duration.

What are the long term effects of covid in 10 years or 20 years? What will be its long-term effects?

Without being complacent or irrationally optimistic, we still have data that shows that more than half of people recover within a year through natural progression and especially through strengthening rehabilitative exercises. It is clear that with the arrival of new mutants, mutations that are increasingly contagious, the risk is to see this phenomenon occur more and more frequently, independently of the duration of symptoms and therefore care. This is recalled in the Covers Report (Committee on Monitoring and Anticipation of Health Risks), meaning that it is somewhat of an invisible cost because we often live on the error of vision which is acute Covid and just death. Unfortunately, we must remember that two million people in France suffer from this pathology.