The United States for a long Covid study

The study, called Research on Covid-19 to Promote Healing or Recovery, will include researchers from more than 30 institutions across the country, according to the National Institutes of Health. They will study new and existing patients with some of the baffling conditions that arise after people are expected to overcome the severe and acute effects of a match with Covid-19.

These post-Covid cases are often referred to as long-term Covid, long-term Covid, acute Covid-19, long-term effects of Covid or chronic Covid. The National Institutes of Health scientifically refer to this as PASC-Post-Acute and the effects of “SARS-CoV-2,” Collins said at a press conference.

Persistent symptoms appear in multiple organs. The most common symptoms are pain, headache, fatigue, so-called brain fog, shortness of breath, anxiety, depression, fever, chronic cough and sleep disturbances. PASC also includes pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome or MIS-C as well as in adults – MIS-A.”

It’s not clear what causes these symptoms, and the study will try to figure out what they might be.

Is it a defect in the immune system that does not recover after infection with this coronavirus? Is it the cause of an imbalance in the metabolism? Collins asked.

He added, “We don’t know. The diversity of symptoms and presentations leads us to believe that long-term Covid disease is not just one case.”

“The only way we can solve that is with very large studies that collect a lot of data on symptoms, physical findings, and laboratory measurements.”

The National Institutes of Health said it would encourage researchers to recruit a diverse group of patients — people of all ages and genders, pregnant women and others. The researchers will include patient input – an unusual approach that Collins says is important to ensure the study covers all bases.

The studies will also include data from wearable devices. Collins said the study was set up in months, rather than the usual multi-year process for something so large and complex.

The study funding comes from the $1.15 billion Congress earmarked specifically for the long-term Covid study as part of the $1.9 trillion US bailout that Biden signed into law last March.

Collins said $470 million for the study will leave funds to begin research into potential treatments.

The National Institutes of Health said the study will look at whether the different treatments used for severe cases of Covid-19 affect the long-term risk of developing Covid, and whether vaccination affects the risk, and will include people who have only mild symptoms of coronavirus. infection.