Covid effects continue to haunt recovered patients in Telangana

Hyderabad: Covid-19 pandemic that shook the world is in no mood to leave mankind to its normal fate even after two years of its spiteful journey, if studies by experts are of any indication.

Covid recovered patients are coming back to hospitals with scars in lungs and heart, damage to the central nervous system and alterations to gut microbes, says an evaluation of the disease done by the Telangana State Medical Council titled ‘Covid 19: Lessons Learnt and Future Strategies’.

To beat long Covid, following steps are important:

1. Sleep hygiene

2. Physiotherapy

3. Rehabilitation of severe patients to basic quality life

4. Balanced diet

5. Reduce stress through meditation and very light exercise

Long Covid effects are noted 12 weeks after recovery wherein there is fatigue, persistent cough and those who suffered from severe disease are seeing alterations in their organs.

Fatigue was reported in 45.7 per cent of the 50,000 patients whose data was collated by private hospitals, 28 per cent suffered from multi-organ damage and 65 percent suffered from lung, heart, and problems of the gut microbes.  

There were also issues noted with patients in the central nervous system but its data is only emerging.  There are also mental health issues which have emerged like post-traumatic stress, depression and anxiety after recovery. Many patients who were in oxygen and intensive care unit wards suffered from severe stress after recovery, as they recalled their days in the hospital.

Dr D. Nageshwar Reddy, chairman, AIG Hospitals, said, "We have noted both in the first and second wave that there are patients coming back to hospital with complaints of breathlessness, chest pain, joint pains, diarrhoea, stomach aches, fever and rashes in the body. Post-recovery follow-up with patients of Covid-19 is important. It is a worldwide phenomenon where an Italian study has shown 83 per cent while Swiss study has shown that 33 per cent have come back to hospitals with diseases."

Long Covid impact is severe on those patients who were critical and had a longer stay in the intensive care unit. In these patients, there are complications of blood clots, sudden heart attack, and also compromised lung functioning causing challenges. Dr Rajeev Menon, senior interventional cardiologist, says, "There were very rare events in patients who came back after recovery. There was a patient who came back with brugada syndrome which is irregular heart rhythms and is a rare disease. It has also been noted that the time for intervention in the recovered patients is less as they are not aware that there are post-Covid 19 complications. For this reason, following up with them is important."

It was also noted by experts that many people are given supplements and vitamin tables and patients are given them more importance than their hypertension medicines. Educating patients to continue taking their disease condition tablets is important, opined experts.