Long Covid: Success in treating persistent pain now offers hope for these sufferers [Video]

The emergence of long Covid as a mysterious new illness has refocused attention on the incapacitating nature of persistent fatigue.

Around the world, this unexpected outcome of the Covid-19 pandemic is now a significant health issue causing personal suffering, absences from work and high projected costs to societies.

An added burden for long Covid patients arises from medical scepticism and social stigma, which leads to self-doubt and shame.

So far, the focus has been on the lack of available treatments, implying there is no cure. But persistent fatigue also often accompanies chronic pain. Emerging understandings of the neurophysiology of pain and sensation now provide more optimism for people with long Covid.

Similarities between long Covid and chronic fatigue

The virus that causes Covid-19 has infected 750 million people, many of whom died prior to mass vaccination. Most people fully recover from mild infections, but about 10 per cent develop persistent and exhausting fatigue, including brain fog, as well as anxiety or breathlessness and a …