RUSSIALINK: “Covid-19 may become chronic condition – Russian Academician Chuchalin” – Interfax

Coronavirus File Photo adapted from image at cdc.gov

MOSCOW. April 15 (Interfax) – The examinations of people who have had Covid-19 show that it may become a chronic condition, Academician Alexander Chuchalin, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) and director of the Department of Hospital Therapy at the Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University, said on Thursday.

“Covid as a chronic condition. Please, pay attention to how I have formulated this phrase. There are patients who have had this disease twice or even three times. I have to say that, regrettably, such patients do exit,” Chuchalin said during the RAS Academic Council’s online conference titled Rehabilitation after Covid-19.

Among other post-Covid symptoms, the academician listed chronic fatigue syndrome and endothelial dysfunction (vascular inflammation) in different organs of the body, including the heart and brain. Another symptom of the post-Covid period is chronic hypoxemia (low levels of oxygen in blood), he said.

In this context, Chuchalin proposed opening rehabilitation centers for patients who have had Covid-19, similar to centers for people with rheumatic diseases. Thus, “these patients won’t be left to their own devices,” he said.

The Russian Health Ministry’s chief external specialist on therapy and general medical practice, Oksana Drapkina, in turn, said that elderly people more often tend to develop different symptoms during the post-Covid period.

“We mostly deal with patients from the 60-85 age group. They tend to develop these post-Covid problems more often,” Drapkina said.

Some young patients encounter neurological problems after Covid-19, she said.

[article also appeared at interfax.com/newsroom/top-stories/71596/]

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