Time to stop using terms like ‘long Covid’

There is little difference between long Covid and long-term symptoms caused by other viruses and labelling it as a separate condition may slow some people’s recovery, a senior scientist has declared.

There is little difference between long Covid and long-term symptoms caused by other viruses and labelling it as a separate condition may slow some people’s recovery, said Queensland chief health officer John Gerrard.

There is little difference between long Covid and long-term symptoms caused by other viruses and labelling it as a separate condition may slow some people’s recovery, a senior scientist has declared.

Queensland chief health officer John Gerrard said the sheer number of people infected by the coronavirus might have made long Covid appear to be “a distinct and severe illness”.

However, a study by his team found it was just as likely for people who had had influenza to report lasting health problems.

“We believe it is time to stop using terms like ‘long Covid’,” he said. “They wrongly imply there is something unique and exceptional about longer-term symptoms associated with this virus. This terminology can cause unnecessary fear and in some cases hypervigilance to longer symptoms that can impede recovery.”

The symptoms linked to long Covid include fatigue, brain fog, cough, shortness of breath, changes to smell and taste, dizziness and rapid or irregular heartbeat. Between 5 and 10 per cent of Covid cases in Australia stretch beyond 12 weeks, the classification for long Covid, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

To understand more about long Covid’s impact in Queensland, researchers looked at 5112 adults. All had symptoms during the Omicron wave of the summer of 2022 but only 2399 had tested positive for the coronavirus, while 995 had tested positive for influenza. The rest had a respiratory illness but had tested negative for both Covid and flu.

A year later they were asked about lasting symptoms and whether they were unable to do everyday activities because they felt unwell. Overall, 16 per cent reported still having symptoms and 3.6 per cent said that they experienced a “moderate to severe” impairment of daily activities.

After accounting for factors including age and sex, the analysis found no evidence that those who had tested positive for Covid were more likely to be affected than those who had been confirmed as having flu, which itself can be a serious illness.

Queensland chief health officer Dr John Gerrard. Picture: Tertius Pickard

“We found that the rates of ongoing symptoms and functional impairment are indistinguishable from other post-viral illnesses,” Dr Gerrard said. “These findings underscore the importance of comparing post-Covid-19 outcomes with those following other respiratory infections, and of further research into post-viral syndromes.”

The authors emphasised that their study had limitations, including that the risk of long Covid was lower during the Omicron wave compared with other variants. Also, 90 per cent of people in Queensland were vaccinated when Omicron emerged, which may have reduced the severity of long Covid.

THE TIMES