More and more recovered COVID-19 patients are being readmitted into hospitals due to "Long COVID" symptoms, it has been revealed.

According to the Sunway Velocity Medical Centre's Consultant Respiratory, Internal Medicine Physician Dr Nurul Yaqeen Mohd Isa, she has seen at last 10 such cases at the hospital, just this month.

The majority of cases involves patients who has had to be admitted into the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for experiencing "organizing pneumonia", she told Malay daily Berita Harian (BH).

"Organizing pneumonia happens when the lungs of a COVID-19 patient get scarred after they recover from the disease.

"The scarring can get worse even after the patient has fully recovered from an infection, causing them to be readmitted into hospitals, and even the ICU," she reportedly said.

Long COVID refers to the instance when a COVID-19 patient continues to experience complications and symptoms for more than four weeks after an infection. Some have reportedly suffered symptoms even three months after an infection.

Recovered COVID-19 patients between categories two and five are more likely to experience Long COVID syndrome, previous reports have said.

Aside from organizing pneumonia, Long COVID patients have also been diagnosed with having blood clots in their lungs, Dr Nurul Yaqeen told BH.

There have also been cases where recovered COVID-19 patients have experienced heart-related complications, even though they did not have any such history prior to being infected by the virus, she added.

Dr Nurul Yaqeen further urged recovered COVID-19 patients to adopt a healthy lifestyle, including eating healthy food, exercising and getting sufficient rest.

"Try to get between 20 and 30 minutes of rest a day, and get six to seven hours of sleep daily. These can improve your antibody levels and ensure you do not get complicated Long COVID syndrome.

"Also, try to avoid taking traditional or herbal medications, whose contents and efficacy are yet to be proven. This is because many such medications contain high levels of steroid or toxic contents like mercury, which can result in kidney and liver failure," she said.

As of yesterday, more than 2.1 million have been infected by COVID-19 in the country, and 23,744 people have died from it.

The global COVID-19 infection and death tally has surpassed 229 million and 4.71 million, respectively.


Source: Berita Harian
Photo source: guidelines.co.uk