Researcher in NB launching study to better understand long-COVID in Canadian patients

As the number of people struggling withlong-term COVIDcomplications grows, a New Brunswick researcher is launching a study to better understand the experiences of Canadian patients in the pandemic’s most recent waves.

去年，艾莉森大学生物学教授和研究人员弗特洛伊德开始了她全国研究的第一阶段，从大流行的前两波的患者中观察了Covid-19的慢性并发症。

“我们正在看危险因素（对于长Covid），长期目标是跟进，看看一些遗传和生物学与真正钉在一起可能是一个危险因素的遗传和生物学相关性，”劳埃德在接受采访时说。

“我们已经完成了第一部分，人们很精彩。我们得到了......一个非常好的人口统计数据，我真的很兴奋。这不仅仅是少数乏味的人。“

来自每个省的超过700多个加拿大人和“大多数”的领土参与，劳埃德最近完成了关于第一项研究的报告即将发布her research website。

“What we found out from them is in terms of symptoms, long-COVID in Canadians looks like long-COVID everywhere else,” Lloyd said.

“That’s not a big surprise because people, we’re the same species no matter where we are, so we experience it the same way.”

'他们需要综合护理'

Lloyd described long-COVID as a set of symptoms typical for post-infectious syndrome. This syndrome, she explained, isn’t only caused by COVID. It’s also caused by other known and unknown infections and viruses.

“这是一套神经系统症状，脑雾，持续疼痛和粉碎疲劳，”她说。“那些是主要的。其他常见症状有50％至100。所以我们肯定记录了（在第一研究中）。“

The survey also found that during the pandemic’s first wave, Canadian patients struggled to get appropriate care due to the multiple symptoms that characterized their illness. Even if their primary health care provider believed they were ill, Lloyd said getting the integrated care their complex illnesses required was challenging.

“They were initially getting frustrated with the way the health care system functions. We have the primary health care provider as a gatekeeper, and they send you to a specialist who is a specialist for one particular area,” Lloyd said.

“But if you have a multi-system illness, that’s really not helping you, and that’s true of all these post-infectious syndromes. They needed integrated care.”

In Nova Scotia, long-COVID patients who meet established criteria receive that kind of care through the Integrated Chronic Care Service (ICCS) in Fall River.

Last month, Nova Scotia Health (NSH) health services manager Ashley Harnish告诉哈利法克斯审查员他们的团队在3月初期望长期患者涌入。那是omicron波的开始点击了12周的标记。

Harnish wanted to ensure Nova Scotians still suffering three months post-COVID infection completed the NSH症状调查表。That form, she said, provides valuable information about the COVID-19 recovery of Nova Scotians. It also serves as the access point for anyone who requires an assessment with the post-COVID navigator and further care at ICCS.

Lloyd believes as the number of Canadian long-COVID patients rise, more jurisdictions will have to open similar facilities to keep up with the demand from patients experiencing COVID-19-related multi-system illnesses.

后续波的路线图

She and her team will soon launch a follow-up survey with participants from their first study to learn more about how those wave one and wave two patients are now doing.

“That’s going to be helpful because it’ll be a roadmap for people who are getting sick in waves three, four, and five,” Lloyd said.

“Overall there seems to be a general trend where most people slowly get better, but we really want to have a better roadmap than ‘most people slowly get better.’ That’s really vague.”

他们还计划从居住在新不伦瑞克和新斯科舍省的第一项研究中联系到参与者。他们正在寻求那些对未来研究感兴趣的人和提供血液样本进行分析。

劳埃德说会有收集网站side of Halifax and Moncton. They’ll use those blood samples to determine whether patients are genetically predisposed to this kind of multi-system illness, or if they were previously exposed to something that made them more susceptible to subsequent infections.

“Epstein-Barr virus is the usual culprit. We’re looking at that, but also some other viruses and bacteria. So basically, is it bad luck in your life, or was it bad luck when your parents were making you,” she said.

“If we can figure out what it is, there are many tools that can be used to boost or tweak the immune system performance. We just have to know what the problem is first.”

Wanted: Long-COVID patients from waves 3 to 5

虽然第一项研究捕获了在大流行的前两个波浪中患者的经验，但劳埃德现在重新启动它对最近波浪中的长窝患者做同样的事情。加拿大人在海浪三，四个和五个，有长Covid的加拿大人签约Covid-19可以访问调查here。

在omicron波期间飙升的Covid-19案例数量，估计，10％到20％的人合同病毒的人将与长Covid斗争，Lloyd担心受长期效应影响的人数将大大增加。

“There’s been speculation ‘Will Omicron suddenly be different and not cause long-COVID?’ Answer? We’ll find out really, really soon,” Lloyd said.

“There’s no reason to think that this variant of the virus would be different than the other variants because these post-infection syndromes are triggered by so many different things and you don’t have to be very, very sick to get long-COVID.”

While long-COVID is frequently characterized as having a persistent lingering symptom or symptoms three or more months post-infection, Lloyd said it’s important to recognize many people’s lives are still turned upside down even if they’re feeling better at the 12-week mark.

“那（定义）仍然意味着有人已经丧失了三个月。这是一年四季。那是毁灭性的，“她说。

“I’m not a good patient. If I’m sick for two or three days, I find that almost intolerable. I just can’t imagine what six weeks would be like, let alone months to two years.”

‘An outcome other than dead or alive’

Lloyd said one bright spot uncovered during the first survey was patient experiences improved overall between waves one and two. She’s hopeful that continues to be the case for struggling patients who contracted COVID-19 during waves three to five.

“在大流行的人的早期不知道长covid（会成为一件事），但他们应该有。这是可预测的，因为我们用SARS看到它，“劳埃德说。

“But there wasn’t general awareness that there would be an outcome other than dead or alive. As that became understood, the number of people who reported being treated dismissively decreased.”

她指出了世界卫生组织（谁），因为有用。谁制作了临床定义detailed information和Covid-19后所谓的症状的清单。

劳埃德补充说，正在进行的“重大”国际研究努力，以确定长COVID危险因素也非常令人鼓舞。

“我们仍然会得到covid”

“Why do some people get long COVID and some people don’t? Once you know what the difference is you can start trying to address that,” Lloyd said.

“不幸的是，我们仍将获得covid。它没有消失。如果我们可以控制它，以便更高的比例迅速克服，这对较少人的痛苦来说是一个巨大的好处。这是重点。“

Lloyd, a renowned tick and Lyme disease researcher, is hopeful researchers will also use what they learn about long-COVID and apply it to other multi-system debilitating illnesses like chronic Lyme disease, fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue syndrome.

She said it doesn’t matter what triggers these illnesses — they’re all similar and patients need the same kind of help.

“What I would like to see is a response that helps people as they try to regain their health, so it means reconfiguring our health care system to some extent,” she said.

“But that’s long overdue and providing more holistic integrating health care is long overdue. It was probably going to be pushed by economics, so this is just one more shove in that direction.”

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