Long Covid could impact thousands of Geelong residents

Long Covid is emerging as a major concern with thousands of Geelong residents expected to be afflicted with the condition. Here’s how it could affect you.

Angie Shrimpton has not felt well for a single day since contracting Covid more than 18 months ago.

The Belmont single mum suffers from long Covid, after catching coronavirus working in administration in an outbreak setting in August 2020.

Ms Shrimpton, 36, is still struggling, battling symptoms including coughing, fatigue,

headaches, earaches, nasal congestion and brain fog.

Long Covid means her diary is packed with appointments: she sees an ear, nose and throat specialist; a psychologist and an exercise physiologist.

Covid victim

She also regularly sees her GP, who she said had multiple patients with long Covid.

Ms Shrimpton, who is triple vaccinated, says waking up every day with Covid symptoms is particularly stressful given how cases have surged in recent times.

“It’s really stressful,” she said.

“I worry what it would do to me if I caught it again.

“I don’t expect to get better at this point.

“I’m just trying to live the best life I can.”

With an explosion of cases since Ms Shrimpton was infected, long Covid is set to become a much more prevalent issue.

Greater Geelong has recorded more than34,000 Covid cases since the start of the pandemic.

Barwon South West public health unit director Eugene Athan recently said long Covid affected up to 15 per cent of people with coronavirus.

This could translate to thousands of locals suffering from long Covid.

According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, although most people with Covid-19 get better within weeks of illness, some people experience post-Covid conditions.

“Post-Covid conditions are a wide range of new, returning, or ongoing health problems people can experience four or more weeks after first being infected with the virus that causes Covid-19,” the CDC website says.

“Even people who did not have Covid-19 symptoms in the days or weeks after they were infected can have post-Covid conditions.

“These conditions can present as different types and combinations of health problems for

different lengths of time.

“These post-Covid conditions may also be known as long Covid, long-haul Covid, post-acute Covid-19, long-term effects of Covid, or chronic Covid.

“CDC and experts around the world are working to learn more about short- and long-term health effects associated with Covid-19, who gets them, and why.”

Dr Darcie Cooper is an Infectious Diseases Associate Research Fellow at the Geelong Centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases.

The centre, a collaboration between Barwon Health, CSIRO and Deakin University, is studying the long-term impacts of Covid.

The research has recruited about 63 people from the Barwon region who contracted Covid, and has received funding to take on more participants.

Most of the current participants contracted Covid in 2020 and a small number in 2021.

The study is expected to recruit more recent patients who have had Omicron in the near future.

Long covid

Dr Cooper said at six month after-infection quality of life responses, 30 per cent of participants had fatigue scores which were equal to chronic fatigue.

“It’s very much mimicking chronic fatigue syndrome which is not something we fully understand,” Dr Cooper said.

Fifty per cent of participants had higher than normal levels of perceived stress.

“Brain fog is a phrase that keeps coming up,” Dr Cooper said.

Most of the research’s subjects were healthy people going into a Covid infection.

Dr Cooper said some participants didn’t feel like they could perform at the same level post-Covid at work, which could lead to feelings of guilt.

“Less motivated to do anything that involves leaving the house has been a consistent thread – a lack of motivation,” Dr Cooper said.

Doctors have raised concerns long Covid could become a significant problem and urged patients to see their GPs if symptoms persisted.

Originally published as Long Covid could impact thousands of Geelong residents