The Sunday Mail
Online Reporter
ALTHOUGH local Covid-19 cases have declined, health experts warn that people can suffer from ‘Long Covid’ even without showing any symptoms of infection.
‘Long Covid’ or post-Covid-19 condition is a wide range of conditions that pose physical or mental consequences to a patient who has initially had an acute infection with the highly infectious virus.
Those who get infected but are asymptomatic or have mild infection, are also at risk.
The condition is present at four weeks or more after the initial infection.
With 516 active cases of Covid-19 recorded in Zimbabwe as at November 20, 2022, showing a remission in the spread of the virus, vaccination uptake levels have also gone down.
National coverage of the vaccination uptake stands at 58,4 percent, which leaves the rest at risk of developing the post-Covid conditions in the event they contracted the Omicron variant currently circulating.
Speaking during a science cafe hosted by the Health Communicators Forum, a specialist in pharmacotherapy, Mr Tinashe Mudzviti, said even though the public has learnt to live with the disease, getting vaccinated still has some benefits.
“The challenge with post-Covid condition is that this actually can present in patients who initially had a mild infection, or even an asymptomatic Sars-Cov-2 infection.
“So, you got the virus and you got a slight fever, but then four weeks later all of a sudden you are feeling very tired, yet the Covid has cleared. That then starts the period where you are now in Long Covid,” he said.
Mr Mudzviti said Long Covid could manifest through difficult in returning to one’s former health condition.
For instance, when one contracted Covid-19, they could suffer from shortness of breath, feeling week and yet after the Covid-19 had cleared one would feel the same way as if they were still infected.
He added that Long Covid could also manifest itself through the development of new symptoms or pre-existing conditions in the body.
“So, you were possibly pre-diabetic and then you get Covid. After Covid has cleared all of a sudden you become diabetic. That is part and parcel of Long Covid.”
Because of the scientific nature of Sars-Cov-2 virus, Mr Mudzviti said it could go beyond the lungs, nose, ears and throat to infect other systems of the body.
There is, however, still a lot of research that needs to be done in terms of evaluating and understanding Long Covid.
Government is still pushing the Covid-19 vaccination campaign and urging the public not drop their guard.
