What is long Covid, and how does the WHO define it?
The name "long Covid" was not coined by a doctor or a committee. It was invented by patients, as a hashtag, in May 2020.
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Long Covid is a group of health problems that persist or develop after an initial Covid-19 infection with . The symptoms can last weeks, months or years, and they are often debilitating. In a definition first published in October 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) describes it as a range of symptoms that usually start within 3 months of the initial Covid-19 illness and last at least 2 months. It calls the condition "post Covid-19 condition", and says it can affect a person's ability to do daily activities such as work or household chores.
The name came from patients. "Long Covid" is a term, coined early in the pandemic by people suffering from long-term symptoms. It was reportedly first used in May 2020 as a on Twitter by Elisa Perego, an archaeologist at University College London. At the time, the typical recovery time for a mild illness was said to be around two weeks. Patients with long-lasting symptoms after a mild infection described them on Twitter and blogs, which challenged those official assumptions.
How wide is the list of symptoms? Over 200 different symptoms have been reported by people with the condition. Common ones include fatigue, aches and pains in muscles or joints, breathlessness, headaches and difficulty thinking or concentrating. Symptoms often get worse after mental or physical effort, a process called , and there is a large overlap in symptoms with ME/CFS.
Two points of caution. First, most people with symptoms at 4 weeks recover by 12 weeks, so the number who have it for a long time is smaller than the number who have it for a short time. Second, there is currently no for long Covid, and no consensus on diagnostic criteria; the WHO definition requires that the symptoms cannot be explained by an alternative diagnosis.
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Most recover by 12 weeks, not everyone (an illustration)
y = 1 · 0.95ˣ
Challenge · Week 12 is 8 weeks after the 4-week mark. Find a weekly rate where most people (more than half) have recovered by then.
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Recap
The WHO's 2021 definition: symptoms that usually start within 3 months of Covid-19, last at least 2 months and have no other explanation.
💡 A trick to remember it · A name born as a hashtag by patients, later written into the WHO definition: think of a label that was coined before the dictionary caught up.
Surprising fact · The term first appeared as a hashtag on Twitter in May 2020.
Sources (3)
No source, no claim. Every fact in this lesson (18 claims) cites at least one of these.