Scientists liken ‘long COVID’ symptoms to those of Ebola survivors

LONDON: Scientists studying the long-term effects of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infection and the persistent symptoms of other diseases such as Ebola have found similarities between the lasting impacts of the conditions.

Similar to patients who suffer from long COVID — the term used to describe the myriad of lasting effects reported by those who recover from the disease — survivors of the viral hemorrhagic fever Ebola and other such diseases also experience lingering symptoms, sometimes to the point of debilitation.

In cases of Ebola, around three in every four survivors still experience symptoms a year or more after infection, with many reporting muscle and joint pain, fatigue, visual problems, and migraine-like headaches.

Around one-third of survivors of Chikungunya, a mosquito-borne disease prevalent in parts of Africa and Asia that causes fever and joint pain, went on to develop fatigue and sometimes crippling arthritis that can last for years.

Danny Altmann, a professor of immunology at Imperial College London, said: “It’s the same kind of discussions as we’re having for COVID-19; it’s people whose lives have never been the same again, who describe joint pain and fatigue and cognitive problems and all those familiar lists.

“The experience of Chikungunya and Ebola should be sounding alarm bells, because although we’re talking about very different virus families, and very diverse infections, they seem to do quite similar things. There’s a desperate need for some immunology to understand what’s going on,” he added.

Altmann pointed out that not only can the long-term symptoms of diseases have devastating impacts on peoples’ lives, but they also presented major long-term challenges to healthcare systems.

“Chikungunya is destroying the Brazilian health service, and it’s not so much because of the acute infection, but because of these lasting health problems. I am not sure our policymakers have this on board when they think about long COVID.

“We may not just be talking about getting through this winter or this spring, but perhaps 300,000 people in the UK and rising, who have a chronic problem,” he said.