Long COVID-19 becoming a new health challenge, say UAE doctors

Long COVID-19 becoming a new health challenge, say UAE doctors

In the third year of the pandemic, humankind has adapted to a life with Covid-19, to a culture of maintaining a safe distance and wearing masks in closed and even open spaces. However, the prolonged effects of Covid-19 are disrupting the lives of some people in the new normal world too.

Frontline doctors in the UAE noted that long-term effects of contracting coronavirus disease are indeed becoming a new threat with some Covid-19 survivors having symptoms ranging from six months to more than a year.

Dr Rajesh Kumar Gupta, internal medicine specialist, Burjeel Specialty Hospital, Sharjah, noted that globally up to 20 per cent of patients have lingering health issues for months even though most test Covid-19 negative.

"You see, a lot has been talked and written about post-Covid-19 conditions or what is popularly termed as long Covid-19. But we cannot essentially run in parallel with the situation of last year and now. Currently, the UAE is a 100 per cent vaccinated country of its targeted group, and most people have got booster doses."

"Though the hospitalisation rate has been decreasing, some of the Covid-19 recovered patients are experiencing long-term issues. On an average, 15 per cent of cases suffer with prolonged effects and