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NEW LONG COVID STUDY UNCOVERS HIGH INFLAMMATION IN PATIENTS AS SENATE CALLS FOR
MORE RESEARCH ON 'CRISIS'

The study followed 113 patients at four different hospitals in Switzerland.

By
Ashley Riegle
January 24, 2024, 8:10 PM ET
• 7 min read

States report rising levels of flu, COVID and RSVAt least 38 states have
reported high or very high levels of respiratory illnesses. Anna
Moneymaker/Getty Images

A new study in Science is shining a light on the continuing impact of long
COVID, with research revealing further and continuing health concerns for some
of the 16 million sufferers in the U.S.

Long COVID is a syndrome, or collection of symptoms, that continue or develop
after an acute COVID-19 infection and can last weeks, months or years. There is
no test to confirm if symptoms are related to long COVID. Some scientists
suggest that long COVID is caused by overactive immune cells, but the exact
cause remains unclear.



The study followed 113 patients at four different hospitals in Switzerland with
mild and severe COVID-19 and found that 40 had symptoms of long COVID at six
months, 22 of whom had persistent symptoms at 12 months.

Researchers looked at blood samples from the 40 who experienced long COVID
symptoms, compared them to controls who were not infected with COVID-19, and
found that those who had long COVID had evidence of inflammation (increased
complement activity), blood cell dysregulation (hemolysis and platelet
activation) and tissue injury in their blood.

MORE: Long COVID research opens door for further exploration on post-viral
illness

The specific details from the small study may help provide "a basis for new
diagnostic solutions," according to the researchers, for the condition with no
known cure or FDA-approved treatments.

While these results finding evidence of inflammation in patients with long COVID
symptoms are not entirely surprising nor specific to long COVID, they are a step
forward in identifying the cause of long COVID.

It's more than just researchers, though, looking into developments in our
understanding of the syndrome. The condition received renewed attention from the
federal government last week, as the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education,
Labor and Pensions convened a group of patients and experts to testify about the
impacts of long COVID before a bipartisan group of Senators.



Healthcare workers administer COVID-19 PCR test at a free test site in Farragut
Square on Dec. 28, 2021, in Washington, D.C.Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

In the Senate's first-ever hearing on this topic, Sen. Tammy Baldwin said
researchers and government officials need to "increase the sense of urgency"
over understanding and treating the condition.

For Sen. Bernie Sanders, chairman of the committee, more needs to be done.

"We think we haven't done anywhere near enough, and we hope to turn that
around," he said.

Medical experts testified at the hearing, telling the committee that the
condition can emerge in patients of all ages and backgrounds, that the risk
increases with multiple infections, and rates of long COVID are higher in
minority communities.

"The burden of disease and disability from long COVID is on par with the burden
of cancer and heart disease," Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, M.D., a clinical epidemiologist
at Washington University, said. "We must develop sustainable solutions to
prevent repeated infections with SARS-CoV-2 and long COVID that would be
embraced by the public."


PATIENTS AND CAREGIVERS

Angela Meriquez Vazquez, a long COVID patient from California, testified that
she has helped over 15,000 sufferers through online advocacy.

"We are living through the largest mass destabilizing event in modern history,"
she told the Senators.

MORE: America's gun violence problem by the numbers

As she told her own story, Meriquez Vazquez, a former runner, said she is
currently on 12 medications. Although she said she has managed to continue
working, and she has health care, the condition has forced her to work from
home, lying down to minimize her symptoms.

"Not since the emergence of the AIDS pandemic has there been such an imperative
for large-scale change in healthcare, public health, and inequitable structures
that bring exceptional risks of illness, suffering, disability, and mortality,"
Meriquez Vazzque said.

One of the Senators -- Republican Roger Marshall -- shared his own testimony,
revealing to the committee that one of his loved ones "is one of the 16 million
people" who has "suffered for two years" with the condition.

He told the committee his family member's illness is "like mono(nucleosis) that
does not go away," adding that the person has seen 30 doctors in an attempt to
find help.

Marshall said there needs to be more focus on treatments for long COVID at the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"I'm frustrated that our CDC is more focused on vaccines than they are on
treatments," he said.


EPIDEMIOLOGISTS AND RESEARCHERS WEIGH IN

Dr. Al-Aly, while testifying, repeatedly called on our country's leaders and
medical experts to come together to tackle the ongoing health crisis.

"We are the best nation on earth, and we can solve this," he said.

One of his proposed solutions is establishing a new multidisciplinary research
institute to address infection-associated chronic conditions.

Research into the condition has been "slow," Dr. Charisse Madlock-Brown, Ph.D.
from the University of Iowa, said at the hearing. She noted clinical trials are
in the "experimental medicine" phase and pushed for more investment to identify
proven treatments.

Sen. Tim Kaine said the National Institutes of Health has been provided more
than $1 billion since 2020 to study long COVID, and he urged representatives
from NIH to testify before the committee. In 2021, the NIH launched the
Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery initiative to identify further risk
factors and causes of long COVID.

"We can't take two years just to get 'geared up,'" he said.

According to the most recent information from the CDC, long COVID can cause up
to 200 symptoms, including chronic fatigue, blood clots, gastrointestinal
issues, brain fog and heart issues. Symptoms can last from months to years
following a COVID infection. Risk factors for developing long COVID after a
COVID-19 infection that have been identified include severe COVID-19 illness,
underlying health conditions (such as asthma, diabetes, obesity or autoimmune
diseases) and not getting the COVID-19 vaccine.

While the interest from the Senate and the new study in Science are promising,
more research needs to be done to find the specific cause of why some people get
long COVID from COVID-19, and others do not, and to find effective treatments.

Erin Hannon, MD, contributed to this report. Hannon is a resident physician in
pediatrics from Columbia University/New York-Presbyterian Hospital, and a member
of the ABC News Medical Unit.

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