Residual Pandemic

Subject – Science and Tech

Context – There is a huge number of people who have defeated COVID-19, but continue to suffer its debilitating long-term effects

Concept –

Two years after the outbreak of the disease, the world has started grappling with a parallel pandemic. Millions who have recovered from COVID-19 say they still face a myriad of health problems months, even years, after being infected by the virus.
Doctors have listed nearly 300 such effects, which are quite wide-ranging: Respiratory, neurological and gastroenterological. People complain of shortness of breath, muscle pain, fatigue, cough, headache, joint pain, chest pain, diarrhoea and an altered sense of smell and taste.
Other persistent symptoms include “brain fog” that makes one’s ability to think sluggish and fuzzy, memory loss, disordered sleep, palpitation and sore throat.
Rare cases of self-harm, suicides and seizures have also been reported. Most of the symptoms are observed after the infection has clinically ended.
While the world has tracked the pandemic in terms of people affected and recovered, the rise in cases of recovered patients with such a long list of ailments has largely been ignored. It has, however, emerged as the starkest sign of the virus’ continuance in our body.
Some call this new health crisis post-COVID syndrome while some have named it post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC). Doctors also refer to those having persistent illness with one or more symptoms of the infection as “long haulers”. But the most common name for this condition the world over is “long COVID”.