Health takes the first steps in Aragon to recognize persistent covid patients

The representatives of the group Long Covid Aragon, in which 264 Aragonese affected by persistent covid participate, they met officially this Thursday and for the second time with members of the Health Department of the Government of Aragon to draw up a roadmap so that these patients are recognized and treated according to some standardized protocols. Until now discreet contacts had been maintained, but this Thursday a step further was taken and Health committed to unifying the coding criteria of the disease so that all affected people can be identified.

After the first meeting, which took place at the end of February, the members of Long Covid Aragón were a little disappointed, due to the little progress that was made, but now it seems that things are getting serious. “We understand that they have a lot of work. The first time it was a first contact, but now we have the feeling that Health recognizes us and wants to work with us,” they say from the group.

Present at the meeting were the general director of Health Care, José María Abad, and the manager of the Aragonese Health Service, José María Arnal, who agreed to create a working group at the request of the group in which members of the Ministry of Health will be represented. Health and different institutions and research centers. The first objective was for the disease to be recognized as such, and the Government of Aragon announced that instructions have already been given so that persistent covid has its own code in medical records, which means recognizing that this ailment exists.

“Until now we were discharged due to sequelae or specific symptoms, such as dyspnea or chronic fatigue, but very few were considered persistent covid. Now that is going to change,” they say. This achievement is very important because these people, on many occasions, had to face disbelief on the part of their employers or their family doctors. “It has been a positive and fruitful work meeting,” said the representatives of the group after the meeting.

“After expressing our concern, both about the increase in cases of persistent covid - in adult and especially pediatric patients - and about the worsening health that several of the members of the group have suffered over these last few months, we have emphasized the need to establish an official count of the affected people,” explains Long Covid Aragón, which is what can now be done if the criteria to identify them are unified. According to the World Health Organization, up to 20% of people who have been infected with covid suffer from illnesses beyond the first weeks. There are more than 200 symptoms associated with this ailment caused by the coronavirus.

A clinical guide to recognize them

Members of the three Primary Care scientific societies (SEMG, semFYC and Semergen), of the Health Research Institute of Aragon (IIS) will be represented in the working group to also initiate joint research and work that will allow us to know more about the reality of persistent covid, its causes (which are unknown) and its long-term consequences.

The SEMG (Spanish Society of General and Family Physicians) in fact, the group explains, has been working on the development of a clinical guide for patient care with persistent covid together with 30 other scientific societies, which should be published in the next few years. weeks, so it will be an important starting point when unifying criteria. This document would allow health professionals to have guidelines and tools to identify and treat cases.
Until now, many people with persistent covid are not considered as such because they were infected in the first wave and were not diagnosed by PCR. Therefore, there is no evidence that they have had the disease, which the group does not understand since with the flu, for example, tests are not carried out to verify that a person is sick. "With a clinical observation of the affected person it would have to be valid. If all the symptoms coincide, it is persistent covid," they claim.

Regarding Long Covid Aragón's request to create specialized care units for these patients, as already exist in other communities such as Catalonia, Navarra or Andalusia, "to facilitate the optimization of health resources as well as the exchange of information between professionals and avoid the comings and goings to the different health centers or specialists of the patients", in principle the Government of Aragon does not consider it necessary at this time, although the opinion of experts will be consulted to make a final decision on the matter.