International Long COVID Awareness Day

Friday was International Long COVID Awareness Day. The condition affects about 11 per cent of Canadians who get it. More than two hundred symptoms have been connected to long COVID, with shortness of breath and brain fog being the most common. 

The symptoms of COVID can last for months and for most, they will subside. But there are many people who don’t recover or remain symptomatic.

A McMaster professor and long COVID researcher says she experienced symptoms for 18 months before recovering and the scariest part for her was the brain fog. 

Manali Mukherjee says according to their study out of 100 people who contract COVID-19, about 60-70 per cent would no longer experience symptoms around the 12-month mark. 

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The other 30 per cent remain symptomatic after a year. Mukerjee says some people have even had long COVID for more than two and a half years. According to statistics 3.1 million people are dealing with this condition and she says it’s impacting more people than we think.   

“In the long COVID arena if you see globally, most affected demographics, is within the working populations and it seems to be female,” says Mukherjee.

“It’s women who are getting more affected in the working population so that’s the reason why it needs to be more closely looked into because it will affect the productivity and hence the socioeconomic and healthcare burden right away. So we do see people between the age range of 25 to 55 who are mostly affected,” says Mukherjee. 

According to Mukherjee right now there is no remedy but clinical trials and research are ongoing, as they look to find a way to treat long COVID.