LONG COVID19
This shows a diverse group of presentations increasingly referred to as “Long COVID”.
It has also been described in patients who did not require hospital treatment. These patients report a wide variety of symptoms, persisting for many months after acute infection. To date, most research on Long COVID has been led by patients and this suggests that it is a common and disabling disorder. Characteristically, it has all of the features of chronic fatigue syndrome.
Long COVID is likely to result in substantial population morbidity with serious implications for health and social care. Research is needed to characterise this disorder, to define disease mechanisms and direct the use of either existing therapeutics or the development of novel treatments.
We have had significant success in the treatment of chronic fatigue syndrome which we have been involved in for many years and this involves looking at the gut microbiome. There are two studies that we have published in the Human Microbiome Journal which describes these approaches and these are safe and definitely worth considering in the population of Long COVID-19 sufferers.
A Retrospective Outcome Study of 42 Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, 30 of Whom had Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Half were treated with oral approaches, and half were treated with Faecal Microbiome Transplantation* – click here for link or download from here
Potential clinical usefulness of gut microbiome testing in a variety of clinical conditions – click here for link
It is worth noting that graded exercise is no longer recommended by NICE for treating CFS/ME , also they stated that Cognitive Behavioural Therapy should no longer be seen as a cure but only as a support for CFS/ME . This clearly defines CFS/ME as a biomedical condition.
*Note that we no longer offer Faecal Microbiome Transplantation. This has been replaced with our new service Gut Flora Replacement Therapy (GFRT).