A researcher studying so-called Covid long-haul vehicles warned that persistent symptoms are a grim reality and can pose a serious problem.
“We have tracked about 60 different symptoms in this patient population,” said David Putrino, the director of Rehabilitation Innovation at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. “We really need to focus on helping these patients and spreading awareness that this is indeed a very serious problem related to Covid.”
A new study from Northwestern University shows that 85% of long-distance travelers – Covid patients who have largely recovered from the worst illness but still experience long-term symptoms – had four or more neurological symptoms. Those symptoms include brain fog, headache, numbness or tingling, loss of taste and smell, and muscle pain.
Northwestern scientists call it the first study of its kind. It followed 100 Covid patients, mostly women with a mean age of 43 years.
Putrino told CNBC’s “The News with Shepard Smith” that the prevalence of Long Covid is changing the way doctors treat patients, even for routine complaints.
“I think before Covid there were a lot of people coming with nonspecific symptoms and they were concerned that they were being treated with formula medication, rather than being very patient and symptom focused in treatment approaches,” Putrino said. What doctors need to do now, as we see this increase in Covid long-distance activities, is to listen to what patients are telling them. ”