On the France Inter set, Monday March 15, 2021, Professor Bruno Riou, dean of the Faculty of Medicine, said that "400,000 French people" will be affected by a long-term Covid. A worrying figure.
"400,000", this is the figure that Professor Bruno Riou, dean of the Faculty of Medicine and crisis medical director of the Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, announced on France Inter, on March 15, 2021, to estimate the Covids of long-term in France. "When we also consider all the contaminations: I remind you that all the long-term Covids would affect one in ten of these patients: we are at 4 million contaminations, that means that 400,000 French people are have a long Covid, he explained. I hear a lot say that a week without confinement is a week gained, for me it is a week lost, especially when we consider the number of deaths, the number of patients in intensive care which must be remembered that one in four will die and some will have consequences ". Remember that according to the High Authority for Health (HAS) this form of the disease is "the persistence of symptoms several weeks or months after the first manifestations." And she lists as symptoms "fatigue, neurological disorders (cognitive, sensory, headache), cardio-thoracic disorders (chest pain and tightness, tachycardia, dyspnea, cough) and odor and taste disorders. Pain, digestive disorders and skin are also common. " A British study, dating from June 2020, concluded that nearly 10% of sick people experienced symptoms after three weeks. The long-term Covid must really be taken into account in the future. However, these days, patients feel neglected and misunderstood.
"Recognizing the disease is very complicated."
On March 5, 2021, Aufeminin received the testimony of Corine *, a childcare assistant, who caught Covid-19 in March 2020. But who has since been fighting against a long form of the disease, which reached him on the neurological level. "Every two and a half months I get sick again with the same symptoms as in March. No matter how much my doctor gives me all the antibiotics he wants, it just doesn't work!", she told us. Over the course of its history, Corine has highlighted a major problem that will have to be resolved: the difficult recognition of long Covids. "The recognition of the disease is very complicated. I am on sick leave. My employer asked me several times if I had indeed had the Covid in March and September 2020. I think he remains suspicious , because it's disturbing: I am sick then I come back to work, then I am sick again… ", reported the childcare assistant. An untenable situation for patients who navigate between symptom reduction and relapses.
If symptoms persist and prevent you from living normally, the attending physician is your best ally. "The medical consultation must include both an assessment of the patient's current state of health and an assessment of the initial episode", HAS specified in a press release dated February 12, 2021. Let us also count on scientific research as a hope for better days for long Covid people.
* At his request, the first name has been changed.