Ag. Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Ronald Georges has raised the alarm on some COVID-19 patients taking longer periods to recover and some suffering from prolonged symptoms associated with the deadly virus in the territory.
He explained that his concern is also linked to the high rates of chronic non-communicable diseases in the British Virgin Islands.
“The cases that are recovering, we are having a few persons who are having a longer course of COVID-19, so that’s a bit concerning. And as you know in the BVI, we have a very high rate of chronic diseases: diabetes, hypertension, obesity and these other types of issues, and as we have said, these increase the mobility and mortality with respect to COVID-19,” he said during a broadcast on Friday, August 6.
He continued: “So we have seen a bit of that in our cases, in the sense that some of them are taking a little longer to clear.”
“The other issue we are seeing is in some persons who have actually cleared COVID-19, continue to have some symptoms. So people have complained about chronic fatigue, headaches, nausea, chest pains, shortness of breath and other similar symptoms to what we consider long COVID-19 or prolonged COVID-19 symptomology. So that is something that we are actually observing.”
The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said although most people with COVID-19 get better within weeks of illness, some people experience post-COVID conditions, which are a wide range of new, returning or ongoing health problems for several weeks after they were first infected with the virus.
“These post-COVID conditions may also be known as long COVID, long-haul COVID, post-acute COVID-19, long-term effects of COVID, or chronic COVID,” it said.
It continued: “CDC and experts around the world are working to learn more about short and long-term health effects associated with COVID-19, who gets them, and why.”
“The cases that are recovering, we are having a few persons who are having a longer course of COVID-19, so that’s a bit concerning. And as you know in the BVI, we have a very high rate of chronic diseases: diabetes, hypertension, obesity and these other types of issues, and as we have said, these increase the mobility and mortality with respect to COVID-19,” he said during a broadcast on Friday, August 6.
He continued: “So we have seen a bit of that in our cases, in the sense that some of them are taking a little longer to clear.”
“The other issue we are seeing is in some persons who have actually cleared COVID-19, continue to have some symptoms. So people have complained about chronic fatigue, headaches, nausea, chest pains, shortness of breath and other similar symptoms to what we consider long COVID-19 or prolonged COVID-19 symptomology. So that is something that we are actually observing.”
The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said although most people with COVID-19 get better within weeks of illness, some people experience post-COVID conditions, which are a wide range of new, returning or ongoing health problems for several weeks after they were first infected with the virus.
“These post-COVID conditions may also be known as long COVID, long-haul COVID, post-acute COVID-19, long-term effects of COVID, or chronic COVID,” it said.
It continued: “CDC and experts around the world are working to learn more about short and long-term health effects associated with COVID-19, who gets them, and why.”