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Long COVID: Century-old Lessons We Still Have Not Learned

Thursday, June 30th, 2022 | carra86p | 2 Comments

Professor John D. Potter*

Potter J. Long COVID: Century-old Lessons We Still Have Not Learned. Public Health Expert Blog. 30 June 2022. https://blogs.otago.ac.nz/pubhealthexpert/long-covid-century-old-lessons-we-still-have-not-learned/

This long-read blog updates what is known about long COVID – now informed by some very large studies and a meta-analysis. The two most concerning aspects of long COVID are its high prevalence (up to 30% of those infected) and, as reinfection is increasingly common, a dose-response relationship between the number of infections and the increased risk of harmful outcomes. Such findings reinforce the continuing need for government action and individual commitment to the core preventive measures of: vaccination, mask use inside public places, and physical distancing where possible.

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Long COVID: a crucial reason for vax, mask, and distance

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2022 | carra86p | 1 Comment

Prof John D. Potter*

Long COVID occurs in at least 20-30% of individuals who have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 and is strongly related to the severity of the initial illness. There are insufficient data to provide a trajectory or a timeline for duration and resolution. The downstream damage can affect: brain, heart, lungs, pancreatic beta cells (resulting in diabetes), muscles, the immune system, eyes, kidneys, and erectile tissue. There is, to date, quite consistent evidence that vaccination is wholly or partly protective against long COVID, whether vaccination occurs before or after COVID-19. A society wanting to minimise the health and cost burden of managing long COVID would therefore choose to maximise vaccination coverage as well as minimise risk of infection with standard public health and social measures.

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Establishing Long COVID services in Aotearoa NZ – what can we learn from overseas?

Monday, March 21st, 2022 | carra86p | No Comments

Robyn Whittaker, Rosie Dobson, Felicity Oh, Sharon Russell, Karen Carter, Penny Andrew*

Long COVID (LC) is becoming a substantial issue internationally and many countries are establishing dedicated health services to support people with the condition. In this blog, we discuss what LC services look like overseas and identify key components and considerations for the development of high quality and culturally appropriate LC services in Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ).

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Update on Long-COVID

Tuesday, June 15th, 2021 | tedla55p | No Comments

Prof John D. Potter*

This blog post updates an earlier post on Long-COVID and reports that estimates of prevalence are still wide at about 15 to 65% of those initially infected with the pandemic virus, SARS-CoV-2. As things stand now across the world, we do not yet have systems in place to diagnose and manage the massive burden of the disease that is Long-COVID. An elimination strategy that includes, but is not limited to, widespread vaccination is not only crucial to reduce the acute case load and high mortality associated with infection with SARS-CoV-2 but is also key to minimising the damage that Long-COVID is otherwise certain to create for individuals, whanau, communities, and nations. This is a “long-read” post – and so readers short on time are welcome to jump to the Conclusions Section.

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The long-term health burden of COVID-19: further justification for NZ’s elimination strategy

Thursday, September 24th, 2020 | Nick Wilson | 2 Comments

Prof John D. Potter*

This blog briefly surveys the emerging scientific evidence on the longer-term burden of symptoms and disease in survivors of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of these symptoms point to damage in the brain and heart. These long-term harms add to the wide range of other reasons for Aotearoa/New Zealand to persist with its successful COVID-19 elimination strategy.

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