This story runs like this:
Towards the second half of 2020 and until the third quarter of 2021, the whole world socialized various terms: long COVID, prolonged COVID, COVID sequelae… But, for the health authorities, it was neither one thing nor the other. In other words, it is not that COVID-19 continues and becomes long, but rather that it is something that happens Post-COVID. In other words, the person acquires COVID, recovers, and then develops symptoms that may (or may not) be related to the virus.
On October 6, 2021, the WHO released the Delphi Consensus that gave way to the term that definitively breaks with the entire collection of names already cited: Post-COVID Condition, which occurs in individuals with a history of SARS-CoV infection. -2 Probable or confirmed usually three months after the onset of COVID-19, with symptoms that last for more than two months and cannot be explained by an alternative diagnosis.
The signs and symptoms can be many and varied, but there are others that impact the functioning of daily life. That is the key point; that have an impact on the person’s daily life and the symptoms may be new onset after initial recovery from acute COVID-19 or persistent from the initial illness and may also fluctuate or recur over time. In the case of girls and boys, the symptoms may be different.
The WHO has already proposed to the world the definition of what can continue with COVID-19. Now, the health authorities of all countries must define the policies to follow to treat this disease, but that is where the risks lie, since the scientific community warns of the possibility that an interest, not a health one, tries to influence the process and so make a profit.
Who is to say what is needed for the Post-COVID Condition? The doctors? The pharmaceutical industry? The insurers? The governments?
Little is known in Mexico if work is being done on what is known in the health industry as the Clinical Practice Guide, which is the document that governs the work of doctors for each disease. Currently, there is no news of the Clinical Practice Guideline for the Post-COVID Condition.
According to medical research, COVID-19 can cause alterations in any part of the body. The most common: headache, changes in attention, decreased sense of smell, memory loss. But there are also pulmonologists who maintain that a fragment of the virus protein causes lung fibrosis, cardiologists who say that it damages the heart, neurologists that it affects the brain, nephrologists the kidney and hepatologists the liver.
Suddenly it seems that there is a battle between the specialists of the different medical specialties to see who announces the next misfortune. Yes, there are undoubtedly repercussions of the infection in various parts of the body, but so far there are no clear definitions, through a Clinical Practice Guideline, for the Post-COVID Condition.