Tag Archives: brain fog

Biden pushes for long COVID sufferers to be protected by law

By Trevor Hunnicutt

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Joe Biden said Monday the White House is pushing for people with long-term symptoms of COVID-19 to be protected against discrimination, as he marked the anniversary of a landmark law for people with disabilities.

U.S. agencies will coordinate to ensure people suffering from severe long-term health problems are protected after the end of their infections with the novel coronavirus, he said.

“Many Americans who seemingly recovered from the virus still face lingering challenges like breathing problems, brain fog, chronic pain or fatigue,” Biden said. “These conditions can sometimes rise to the level of a disability.”

Around one in 10 COVID-19 patients are still unwell 12 weeks after their acute infection, and many suffer symptoms for far longer, according to a World Health Organization-led report published in February.

Biden spoke at a Rose Garden event celebrating the 31st anniversary of the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which makes it illegal to discriminate against people with disabilities in public accommodation, employment, transportation and community living. Nearly 57 million Americans had some form of disability in 2010, the U.S. Census bureau reported.

The new effort will be aimed at making sure people with those long-term COVID-19 symptoms “have access to the rights and resources that are due under the disability law,” Biden said.

That could include mandating new accommodations for those disabilities at restaurants, in workplaces, at school and in the healthcare system.

The White House did not immediately provide additional details on the program.

“This was a Democratic bill signed by a Republican president,” Biden said. “For our nation, the ADA is more than a law” he said. “It’s a testament to our character as a people, our character as Americans.”

The effort comes as the fast-spreading Delta variant and slower uptake of vaccines has threatened to derail the administration’s efforts to control the pandemic.

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Additional reporting by Steve Holland and Merdie Nzanga; Editing by Heather Timmons and Dan Grebler)

Women in 40s, 50s who survive COVID more likely to suffer persistent problems: UK studies

By Kate Kelland

LONDON (Reuters) – Women in their 40s and 50s appear more at risk of long-term problems following discharge from hospital after COVID-19, with many suffering months of persistent symptoms such as fatigue, breathlessness and brain fog, two UK studies found on Wednesday.

One study found that five months after leaving hospital, COVID-19 patients who were also middle-aged, white, female, and had other health problems such as diabetes, lung or heart disease, tended to be more likely to report long-COVID symptoms.

“Our study finds that those who have the most severe prolonged symptoms tend to be white women aged approximately 40 to 60 who have at least two long term health conditions,” said Chris Brightling, a professor of respiratory medicine at Leicester University who co-led the study known as PHOSP-COVID.

A second study led by the International Severe Acute Respiratory and emerging Infections Consortium (ISARIC) found that women under 50 had higher odds of worse long-term health outcomes than men and than older study participants, even if they had no underlying health conditions.

“It’s becoming increasingly clear that COVID-19 has profound consequences for those who survive the disease,” said Tom Drake, a clinical research fellow at Edinburgh University who co-led the ISARIC study.

“We found that younger women were most likely to have worse long-term outcomes.”

The ISARIC study, which covered 327 patients, found that women under 50 were twice as likely to report fatigue, seven times more likely to have breathlessness, and also more likely to have problems relating to memory, mobility and communication.

The PHOSP study analyzed 1,077 male and female patients who were discharged from hospitals in Britain between March and November 2020 after having COVID-19.

A majority of patients reported multiple persistent symptoms after 5 months, with common symptoms being muscle and joint pain, fatigue, weakness, breathlessness and brain fog.

More than a quarter had what doctors said were “clinically significant symptoms of anxiety and depression” at five months, and 12% had symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Louise Wain, a professor and respiratory specialist at Leicester University who co-led PHOSP, said differences in male and female immune responses “may explain why post-COVID syndrome seems to be more prevalent” in women.

“We…know that autoimmunity, where the body has an immune response to its own healthy cells and organs, is more common in middle-aged women,” she said, but “further investigation is needed to fully understand” the processes involved.

(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Bernadette Baum)