Doctors struggle to treat long Covid patients in India; researchers point to inadequate studies

Global efforts to understand and manage long Covid post-pandemic, with varied symptoms and limited treatment guidelines worldwide.

Doctors in India are grappling to diagnose and treat unexplained and persistent symptoms of long Covid patients due to limited guidelines, whereas researchers have flagged inadequate studies on the condition.

With the World Health Organization declaring an end to COVID-19 as a global health emergency in May last year, focused efforts are underway around the world to estimate the burden of long Covid among the population.

The condition refers to the set of lingering symptoms affecting varied body parts and persisting well beyond the acute Covid infection period, including cough, muscle and joint pain, fatigue, brain fog and difficulty in focusing. The viral disease is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

While studies have suggested that about a third of those moderately or severely infected are likely to suffer from long Covid, region-wise though, incidence could vary.

A study by researchers, including those from Harvard Medical School, U.S., estimated that 31% of the once-infected people in North America, 44% in Europe, and 51% in Asia, have long Covid, which is “challenging the healthcare system, but there are limited guidelines for its treatment”. It was published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases in September.

In India, however, studies on long Covid are few and far between.

One such study by Maulana Azad Medical College in New Delhi, conducted from May 2022 to March 2023 on 553 patients who had recovered from Covid, found that about 45% had lingering symptoms, persistent fatigue and dry cough being the most common.