About one in nine Canadian adults experienced long-term symptoms after contracting COVID-19, according to a new report from Statistics Canada.
This equates to 3.5 million Canadians, we learn from the federal agency's report released Friday.
Nearly 80% of people who have long-term symptoms of COVID-19 have had them for six months or longer, the report said, including 42% for a year or longer.
The consequences are “significant” not only for the affected patients, but for the entire country, emphasized Manali Mukherjee, an assistant professor of medicine at McMaster University who specializes in respiratory diseases and immunology, in an interview.
These patients see decreased daily productivity. This affects their quality of life, which has a direct impact on the socio-economic situation in Canada.
The latter has been researching COVID-19 for a long time and had symptoms of infection herself for 18 months.
Symptoms that persist
Long COVID is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as symptoms that last three months or longer after infection and cannot be explained otherwise.
According to Statistics Canada's report, more than half of people who already had long-term symptoms of COVID-19 still had them last June.
Of those who continued to experience symptoms in June 2023, about 7 in 10 reported feeling them every day or almost every day when they peaked, and about 1 in 5 (21.7%) reported that They are often or always restricted from taking them into account in their daily activities, the federal agency added.
Overall, half (49.7%) of people whose symptoms were persistent reported no improvement over time.
According to Dr. Mukherjee not surprising. Long COVID is very real, she recalled.
The most common symptoms of long COVID are headaches, fatigue and shortness of breath, she said.
Research has shown that vaccination against COVID-19 reduces the risk of long-term symptoms. According to Dr. According to Mukherjee, the vaccination also helps reduce the severity of symptoms.
It is not easy to get services
Two-thirds of Canadian adults who attempted to seek medical care for long-term symptoms related to COVID-19 said they did not receive appropriate treatment, services or support, we read in the Statistics Canada report.
Researchers, doctors and health authorities across the country, working with affected patients, are trying to correct this situation through a massive knowledge-sharing network called the Long COVID Web, Mukherjee said.
We are all working to understand […] the different biomarkers that explain this persistence (of symptoms). […] and finding a way to target them through targeted treatments, she assured. There is always hope.
Statistics Canada prepared its report using data from the 2023 Canadian Health and COVID-19 Antibody Survey follow-up questionnaire.