‘I’ve aged 30 years’: long Covid patients battle acute symptoms

‘I’ve aged 30 years’: long Covid patients battle acute symptoms

PARIS, March 13 — Difficulty breathing, concentrating and even walking: five months after being diagnosed with Covid-19, Violaine Cousineau continues to suffer severe symptoms that prevent her from resuming normal life.

“I feel like I’ve aged 30 years in a few months,” the 47-year-old Canadian tells AFP. Sitting in her kitchen and wearing a mask, Cousineau gestures with her hands as she speaks, as if to accentuate her words as her voice has been reduced to a whisper.

“I don’t recognise myself, my family doesn’t recognise me either. I’m not the person I was,” says the Montreal resident, noting that she walks with a cane to avoid falling.

A mother of two girls aged 12 and 15, she is one of hundreds of expected patients of a new clinic in Montreal specialising in long-term health impacts of Covid-19, or “long Covid.” She had no pre-existing health problems and even enjoyed “super cardio” hiking on nearby mountains on weekends.

After contracting the illness in October, she spent a trying first week, including being bedridden for three days.

“I could never have thought for a fraction of a second that it would go further than that,” she says. Now, cooking has become difficult – and going down the stairs? “I’m going to be slammed for the day,” laments the literature teacher who is no longer able to turn the pages to read a novel or return to work. “Everyday life has been turned upside down,” she says. “It’s the ordeal of a lifetime.” 10 to 30 per cent afflicted –

A significant number of patients who contract the novel coronavirus mysteriously suffer debilitating symptoms long after others recover. The European branch of the World Health Organization says the seemingly chronic condition must be “of utmost importance” to health authorities around the world.

In Quebec, which has recorded more than 294,000 cases of the coronavirus, “it could be 10 to 30 per cent of patients who have complications,” says Emilia Liana Falcone, director of the new clinic set up by the Montreal Clinical Research Institute (IRCM), which is affiliated with the University of Montreal. Opened in February, the clinic’s doctors aim to understand the long-term complications of Covid and their duration in order to then determine the causes and develop treatments. Falcone says there are patients still showing symptoms one year after getting infected.

The clinic, she says, has so far examined about 15 patients and expects several hundred more with complications that can affect people “aged 19 years as much as those 69 years old.” “Fatigue is definitely very common,” says the infectious disease specialist, as is shortness of breath, muscle pain or sleep disorders. Cousineau says she “does not expect miracles.”

Blood tests, cardiac ultrasound, chest x-ray: all tests have come back normal.

“I almost feel like a mutant, a new species which has appeared and which must be successfully decoded,” she says with a smirk.

The only relief from her symptoms: spending very long hours in the brisk air of the Canadian winter, outside the city. Anne Bhereur, 44, another patient at the clinic, finds it “very reassuring to be supported by people who are competent and interested in understanding what is happening.” “What is it that makes breathing so difficult?” wonders the family doctor afflicted with long Covid, explaining in a whisper that her colleagues are “just as baffled” by her symptoms.

After contracting Covid-19 in December at the hospital where she worked in palliative care, Bhereur thought she would return ten days later “with immunity against the virus, while being a little safer.”

But she still feels very tired and has difficulty breathing and concentrating, forcing her to break up each daily task. “It takes me 30 minutes to go around the block when normally it would not even take 10,” she says, adding that she tries “hard to remain optimistic.”She adds: “Laughing or crying, I become too short of breath, so we take things one day at a time.” /HT

``我已经30岁了''：Covid长期患者应对急性症状

巴黎，3月13日-呼吸困难，注意力不集中甚至行走困难：在被诊断出患有Covid-19病毒五个月后，Violaine Cousineau继续遭受严重的症状，使她无法恢复正常生活。

这位47岁的加拿大人告诉法新社：“我觉得我已经几个月就已经30岁了。” Cousineau坐在她的厨房里，戴着口罩，说话时双手示意着，好像声音变得轻声细语一样，突显了她的话语。

“我不认识自己，我的家人也不认识我。我不是我本人，”蒙特利尔居民说，并指出她she着拐杖走路以避免跌倒。

她是两个年龄分别为12岁和15岁的女孩的母亲，是蒙特利尔一家新诊所的数百名预期患者之一，该诊所专门研究Covid-19或“长期Covid”的长期健康影响。她没有任何先前的健康问题，甚至在周末都喜欢在附近的山脉上进行“超级有氧运动”。

在十月份患病后，她度过了一个艰难的第一周，包括卧床不起三天。

她说：“我从来没有想过会在短短的一秒钟之内走得更远。” 现在，做饭变得困难了-下楼了吗？“我今天要被猛烈抨击，”这位文学老师感叹道，他不再能够翻页阅读小说或重返工作岗位。她说：“每天的生活都被颠倒了。” “这是一生的磨难。” 遭受10％到30％的折磨–

感染新型冠状病毒的大量患者在其他人康复后很久就神秘地患有使人衰弱的症状。世界卫生组织欧洲分会说，看似慢性的疾病对世界各地的卫生当局必须“至关重要”。

蒙特利尔临床研究所（IRCM）设立的新诊所主任艾米莉亚·利安娜·法尔科内（Emilia Liana Falcone）说，在魁北克，魁北克省已记录了29.4万例冠状病毒，“这可能是有并发症的患者的10％至30％”。 ）（隶属于蒙特利尔大学）。该诊所的医生于2月开业，旨在了解Covid的长期并发症及其持续时间，以便确定原因并制定治疗方案。法尔科内说，有些患者在被感染一年后仍表现出症状。

她说，该诊所迄今已检查了约15名患者，并预计还会有几百例会影响“ 19岁的人和69岁的人”的并发症。传染病专家说：“疲劳绝对是很普遍的。”呼吸急促，肌肉疼痛或睡眠障碍也是如此。库西诺说她“不期待奇迹”。

血液检查，心脏超声检查，胸部X光检查：所有检查均恢复正常。

她笑着说：“我几乎感觉就像是一个突变体，一个已经出现并且必须被成功解码的新物种。”

她的症状唯一的缓解方法是：在城市外的加拿大冬季的轻快空气中度过很长的时间。诊所的另一位患者，现年44岁的安妮·贝赫尔（Anne Bhereur）认为，“非常有能力且有兴趣了解正在发生的事情的人会为她提供支持。” “是什么使呼吸如此困难？” 想知道患有长时间Covid困扰的家庭医生，低声说她的同事对她的症状感到“困惑”。

在12月与她在姑息治疗工作的医院签订Covid-19合同后，Bhereur认为她将在十天后“对病毒具有免疫力，但更安全一些”后返回。

但是她仍然感到非常疲倦，难以呼吸和专心，迫使她分拆日常工作。她说：“我通常需要10分钟就能走30分钟，而平时甚至不需要10分钟。”她补充说，“努力保持乐观。”她补充道：“笑或哭，我变得呼吸急促，所以我们一次只需要一天。” /H T