Some 500.000 people in Spain could suffer from persistent covid without knowing it

Primary care doctors, patients, nurses, psychologists and community pharmacists have joined together in an initiative to address this problem and have created a document with recommendations for its treatment. This condition, called anosmia, occurs in practically all infections and in all variants known so far.

Some 500.000 people, 10 percent of those infected, suffer from persistent covid in Spain, but most of them do not even know that the varied and usually mild symptoms with which they have been living for months are related to a previous coronavirus infection.

Primary care doctors, patients, nurses, psychologists and community pharmacists have joined together in an initiative to address this problem and have created a document with recommendations for its treatment. This Tuesday they presented it at a press conference in Madrid.

The "First consensus document for the approach to patients with mild symptoms of persistent COVID" is based on a certainty: in this disease there are more questions than answers and a lack of consensus that ends up affecting research.

In order to establish common measures of action for patients, the first thing this document does is define the disease, which is one in which the symptoms are causally and temporally related to the laboratory or clinical diagnosis of a previous infection by the virus. SARS-CoV-2.

They are ailments such as palpitations, syncope, tachycardia, coagulation or dermatological problems, low-grade fever, chills, anorexia, general malaise, neurological disorders such as headaches or asnomia, anxiety, phobias, apathy...

Medical problems that, even if they are mild, seriously affect the daily life of the sick, as explained by Mª Eugenia Díez, coordinator of the persistent COVID-19 group in Madrid, who has emphasized that the majority of Patients overcome covid with mild symptoms and begin to have problems later.

“We believe that a comprehensive approach to 'long covid' is essential,” said Díez, who has pointed out the importance of research to improve the treatment and knowledge of this disease, in addition to drawing attention to the need to increasingly more people are aware that their symptoms can be included in that disease.

Currently, there is no consensus on the definition of what persistent COVID is in Spain. And that means that only 3.000 people are associated, of the 500.000 who are estimated to have the symptoms.

From the Spanish Society of Clinical, Family and Community Pharmacy (SEFAC), Navidad Sánchez has highlighted that pharmacies can detect those people who have had the infection but have compatible symptoms that in principle are associated with other health problems. Cough, muscle pain, fatigue or even hair loss can be warning signs for pharmacists, who can indicate appropriate treatments or refer you to a doctor.

The Association for Health Self-Care (anefp), the Spanish Society of General and Family Physicians (SEMG), the Spanish Society of Clinical, Family and Community Pharmacy (SEFAC), the General Nursing Council, have participated in this initiative. the General Council of Psychology of Spain and the Long COVID ACTS patient association.

For the development of this project, an advisory commission chaired by Julio Mayol has been created, which contains 27 recommendations to improve the identification of these patients, the types of treatments for mild symptoms or the collaborative practices that should exist between different professionals.

The Spanish Society of General and Family Physicians (SEMG) was clear, from the beginning of the pandemic, about the new health problem posed by long-term covid-19. “Hand in hand with the patients, the SEMG focused its efforts in the last two years to learn more about this new disease and thus be able to help those affected. Today, they continue to be helpless and subject to great variability in the care they receive,” explains its vice president, Dr. Rodríguez Ledo.

Symptoms that also end up affecting the mental health of patients and that, according to this group, will be one of the main health challenges in primary care in the coming years.