The long-term effects of COVID-19 are still poorly understood, but one thing is clear: many men, women, young people and even children cannot get rid of a wide variety of symptoms of the disease for weeks or even months. This was stated by the WHO Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “Some cough and suffer from shortness of breath, others have the virus infecting important organs, lungs and heart, and still others experience neurological and psychological problems,” he said. Sometimes the healing process takes not only a long time, but also wave-like, and such complications are found both in people who have undergone a severe form and hospitalization, and in those who were treated at home.
“WHO experts will continue their research to develop the most effective approaches to speed up [people's] recovery and prevent complications,” said Dr. Tedros. Governments, he said, should recognize that in some cases the consequences of COVID-19 can be lingering, and provide medical care for such patients, and if necessary, rehabilitation.
The conference was also attended by people who survived the lingering consequences of the disease. For example, Professor Paul Garner from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine said that the symptoms of the disease constantly returned, and the slightest physical activity led to severe weakness. “My body was behaving completely unpredictable,” he said. Only now, seven months after the onset of the infection, Paul Garner can resume sports, but only in a lightweight format. "And a couple of weeks ago, my sense of humor finally returned," he said.
The experience of Paul Garner and others, as the head of WHO emphasized, is another confirmation of how immoral it is to try to let the pandemic take its course and wait until everyone gets sick and it ends. “Only with a safe and effective vaccine can herd immunity be achieved,” said Dr. Tedros. In the meantime, it is not, he said, governments and the public must do everything possible to stop the spread of the infection.
Following two days of consultations, the COVID-19 Emergency Committee, as expected, upheld the status of a public health emergency of international concern. All countries are encouraged to continue to implement the already proven measures. “But we see a light at the end of the tunnel,” Dr. Tedros reassured the audience. The accelerated tests, dexamethasone, which helps with severe COVID-19, and three vaccines in the final round of trials, are encouraging, he said.
Answering journalists' questions, Mark Ryan, director of the emergency management department, noted that travel, including international ones, does not pose a big threat - enough measures have been taken to keep passengers safe. Much more important, he said, is the epidemiological situation in the country of arrival and where the person came from. At the same time, the results of the tests that are now required to enter many states do not guarantee safety: a person may not show illness at the time of taking a smear, but be infected and get sick in two days.
As for the mutation of the virus, according to technical expert Maria Van Kerkhov, it mutates, like any other pathogens, and the World Health Organization constantly receives genetic "portraits" of the modified viruses from partner countries. “But we are concerned about how these changes affect the ability of the virus to spread, how the course of the disease changes, its outcome, how effective the vaccine is, and in this sense the coronavirus is stable,” she said.
