![]() ![]() “It’s also possible that these things can happen in sequence. “Our research thus far has shown hints of all of these,” Iwasaki says. Inflammation in one tissue can damage other tissues. Chronic changes occur in the body after the acute inflammatory response (COVID-19 infection).Under certain circumstances, they can be reactivated.) (Every person carries multiple viruses that are dormant. Latent (or dormant) viruses inside an individual reactivate.The stimulus that triggers this occurs continuously in the body, making it difficult to pinpoint and shut down. The body’s disease-fighting B and T cells trigger an immune response-and subsequent inflammation-in a process called autoimmunity.After a person has COVID-19, a persistent virus or remnants of it cause chronic inflammation and ongoing symptoms.She also lists four hypotheses on her laboratory website that could explain Long COVID's initiation and progression: Iwasaki says research has shown that Long COVID is not a single disease. How is Long COVID defined?Īkiko Iwasaki, PhD, a Yale School of Medicine immunobiologist, leads multiple studies investigating the pathobiology of Long COVID. Specialists in Long COVID answered questions about what we now know about the condition and what we can do about it. The program also offers on-site physical therapy and social work services-the latter because Long COVID can affect relationships, finances, job security, and quality of life. ![]() Although Yale Medicine has been caring for Long COVID patients since the pandemic began, the new centralized program adds a multidisciplinary approach: Patients are evaluated and, if necessary, referred to cardiologists, neurologists, pulmonologists, rheumatologists, and other specialists who have experience treating the condition. Personalized care is the focus of the Yale New Haven Long COVID Multidisciplinary Care Center, which launched in spring 2023 and is directed by internist Lisa Sanders, MD. But there is a growing understanding that people experience the condition in different ways, leading to an individualized approach to treating their symptoms. “There is no one pill or strategy that helps everybody,” says neurologist Lindsay McAlpine, MD, director of the Yale NeuroCovid Clinic and one of many Yale Medicine specialists who care for Long COVID patients. That knowledge will be essential to developing treatments. Research has offered some insights but not enough to provide a solid understanding of how Long COVID progresses in the body. And we still don’t know why only some people develop the condition or why others can get it after a mild COVID-19 infection. But imaging tests don’t always show the origins of those symptoms. Severe cases of Long COVID can even affect the body’s organs. The symptoms, such as chronic pain, brain fog, shortness of breath, chest pain, and intense fatigue, can be debilitating. Long COVID, the condition where symptoms that surface after recovering from COVID-19 linger for weeks, months, or even years, is still a mystery to doctors and researchers. ![]()
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