The long suffering of Covid-19

Over 10,000 in Tipperary with long-term symptoms of disease

The number of people in County Tipperary with symptoms of long Covid exceeds the entire population of the town of Nenagh, Independent TD Michael Lowry has revealed.

Deputy Lowry said a total of 10,511 in Tipperary were experiencing long-term symptoms after contracting the potentially deadly coronavirus and has called on the HSE to develop “a treatment pathway” for those impacted. The figures produced by the poll-topping Independent TD from Holycross indicate that in excess of 6.5 per cent of the 160,000 population of Tipperary are experiencing symptoms of what Deputy Lowry refers to as “the surge in long Covid” cases being reported.

The 10,511 Tipperary people with the condition is put in stark reality by the fact that the number exceeds the entire population Nenagh, the capital town in the north of the county, which numbers 9,000.

A study by Dutch scientists earlier this month found that one in eight Covid-19 patients go on to develop long Covid - with “core” symptoms that included, chest pain, difficulties breathing, painful muscles, loss of taste and smell, tingling extremities, feeling hot and cold, heavy arms and/or legs, and general tiredness.

Two Irish studies published in June found Long Covid patients are experiencing high levels of mental health problems.

Last month Professor Jack Lambert, who established a clinic to examine the effects of long Covid at the Mater hospital in Dublin, told a joint Oireachtas committee that one-third of people with long Covid are still suffering from significant neurocognitive defects after one year.

Professor Lambert, one of the State's leading infectious disease experts, said up to one-in-20 people with long Covid were still completely unable to function or get out of bed.

Deputy Lowry has joined with his fellow members of the Regional Group of TDs in calling on the Government to treat the surge in long Covid patients with the same urgency as the initial Covid-19 infections, “and ensure that the 10,511 adults across Tipperary who are trying to manage long Covid are given access to the medical care they need”.

TREATMENT PATHWAY

Deputy Lowry stated: “Patients in Tipperary are among the 336,451 adults nationally who are likely to be suffering from long Covid. Despite promises since last September we are still waiting for a treatment pathway to be put in place by the HSE.”

He said symptoms being suffered by people included fatigue and brain fog.

Deputy Lowry said it was now almost a year since the HSE had stated that it planned to establish specialist long Covid clinics, "yet we are still waiting for this to happen.”

He predicted even more big pressure ahead for hospitals in the coming months unless action is taken. “The reality is that such a large number of long Covid patients presenting to our health service with complex health conditions will overwhelm our hospitals as we begin to plan for a winter of hospital overcrowding.

"In addition, these services will be put under considerable pressure due to recurring waves of further Covid-19 illness."

SLEEPWALKING INTO CRISIS

Deputy Lowry added: “We cannot just sleepwalk into a crisis of chronic illness, which will push people waiting on treatments since before the pandemic even further down already horrendous waiting lists.

"We need to see this surge of long Covid patients managed with a coordinated response from Government."

The Tipperary TD said the estimated 336,451 adults nationally who are likely to be suffering from long Covid is based on research published earlier this month in The Lancet by a team of researchers in the Netherlands who have attributed long Covid symptoms to 12.7% of patients infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

He said research on blood donors published last month by Ireland’s Health Protection Surveillance Centre indicates that 69% of adults in Ireland have been infected by the virus.

“In fact, The Lancet paper has described long Covid as ‘the next public health disaster in the making’, which clearly indicates that Government must now treat this illness and the patients with it as a matter of the utmost priority,” concluded Deputy Lowry.