Long Covid: two mechanisms to explain it

Cairo: Mai Kamal El-Din

With Mathilde Fontez, editor-in-chief of the scientific magazine Epsiloon, we are talking, 4 and a half years after the pandemic, 2 years after the appearance of the first cases, this chronic form of covid, which we call long covid.

franceinfo: Researchers studying this disease are beginning to understand its mechanisms…

Mathilde Fontez: Yes, it’s been a long road to get here. We must remember that when the first cases of long covid appeared in 2020 – these patients who weeks, even months after infection, returned to consult because they were tired, because they had headaches, hard to think. When these cases appeared, it was initially thought to be psychosomatic. It was thought to be trauma from the infection that was lingering, but with no real underlying cause.

Except that given the multitude of cases and the severity of the symptoms, a major research effort was launched. Today, we know that long covid affects 10 to 20% of people who have been infected with covid. It is estimated that the disease affects 2 million people in France and 65 million worldwide. And, finally, two mechanisms have been discovered to explain it.

Is it linked to the presence of the virus which remains in the body after infection?