COVID: a never-ending story

It is fair to say the emergence of long COVID has been an enigma for researchers, health care professionals and governments.

The Federal Government’s parliamentary inquiry found that GPs would continue to provide most of the care needed by long COVID patients, and therefore needed more education and support. In response, it has pledged to do more, including allocating $50 million for research.

And as our pandemic-fatigued population focuses on normal life without restrictions, Australians continue to be infected by SARS-CoV-2 at a rate of almost 4000 a day.

By April this year, there have been 11,352,930 COVID cases in Australia – almost half the population – and even if just 5% go on to develop long COVID, the addition of more than half a million patients would have a significant impact on demand for Australian healthcare providers.

Yet according to WHO, 10-20% of people infected will also acquire long COVID, and though estimates vary, “the highest percentage of the 65 million global diagnoses were between the ages of 36 and 50 years among nonhospitalised patients with a mild acute illness.”

In WA, 1,308,433 people (also nearly 50% of the population) have contracted COVID and just six months ago, on October 31, 2022, four days before Premier Mark McGowan ended WA’s Public Health State of Emergency, the Department of Health launched Perth’s first long COVID clinic, a pilot-program at Bentley Health Service.

A survey exploring the impacts of long COVID on West Australians was also announced and Senior Medical Adviser for Communicable Disease Control, Dr Paul Effler, explained at the time that the study would help shape WA’s response to long COVID, noting the need to gain “a better understanding of the risk factors and potential causes.” continued on Page 35

“WA’s high vaccination rate when we were hit by the Omicron variant means information about long-COVID from other countries with lower vaccination rates, and which experienced different variant waves, is not likely to be applicable to us,” Dr Effler said.

The move followed the Australian Government’s launch of an official inquiry into the impacts of long-COVID and repeated COVID infections, chaired by paediatrician Dr Mike Freelander.

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