EU-US conference on Long COVID

This online conference aimed to shed light on perspectives for addressing long COVID in the EU and the United States of America. It brought together experts from medical, public health, and health economics disciplines as well as representatives of patient organisations and policymakers.

Emerging evidence suggests that as many as 1 in 8 people who recover from COVID-19 will experience debilitating symptoms lasting much longer than expected, leading to an impaired quality of life. A wide range of physical and psychological symptoms, including fatigue, shortness of breath, depression, headaches and/or dizziness, have been reported by individuals at least 12 weeks following a SARS-CoV-2 infection. While the risk of developing post-COVID condition appears to be greater among older individuals with pre-existing conditions who were admitted to hospital because of COVID-19, studies have shown how it is also prevalent among previously healthy, young people who experienced mild to no symptoms when they first contracted the virus.

As there are still many unknowns, the EU’s Horizon Europe work programme 2021- 2022 has provided funding for six research projects focused on long COVID and the EU Strategy on COVID-19 therapeutics refers to it in its framework of research, development and innovation actions. An opinion from the Expert Panel on effective ways of investing in health also provided insights into the impact of long COVID on health systems.

Hashtags : #LongCOVID and #HealthUnion