Province to discuss long COVID models of care at national roundtable in June

New Brunswick will participate in anational roundtable on long COVID-19 in early June, looking at different models of care, says theprovince's acting deputy chief medical officer of health.

Long COVID is "a topic of great interest" in New Brunswick, saidDr. Yves Lger.

"We know that it is affecting a significant proportion of COVID cases," he said.

How many, and for how long"aren't exactly clear yet."

"We still don't have an official case definition for what is or isn't long COVID," saidLger.

"But we do know that it is, for some individuals, it is quite debilitating. It certainly can affect their quality of life and in some cases even their ability to work."

Early reports from the World Health Organization showed 10 to 20 per cent of people infected with the virus would go on to have symptoms of long COVID. But earlier this month, Canada's Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam said more up-to-date research indicates it could be as many as half.

'Pretending long COVID doesn't exist'

New Brunswick has facedcriticism from the public and opposition politicians for being slow to address or even acknowledge the issue.

Lisa Cranke, who says she has suffered with long COVID for more than two years, argues the provinces needs to "do better to help long COVID patients."

"In fact, NB is pretending long COVIDdoesn't exist,"she posted on Twitter.

Peoplelike her are "suffering and need help and acknowledgement," she wrote.

One day earlier this month, Crankesaid she was so fatiguedshecould barely get out of bed. The next day, her head waspounding and the pressure was so bad, she could barely think.

Just standing makes her heart rate jump to 160 beats per minute, she said, andshe shakesand has tremors.

"I know that there is no cure for long COVID yet; however, as a minimum, it should be recognized as a severe illness and disability so that patients can get the help they need when they can no longer work anymore due to symptoms," Cranke wrote.

Doctors also need guidance about how to help patients, she added.

Green Party Leader David Coon has said he has "no confidence that the government or health [department] are actually paying attention to long COVID.

"And that's going to be brutal for all too many people," he said.

Seeking best way to move forward

ButLgercontends "it still is early days."

"We are, you know, committed to looking at thatto really try and put in measures that will better care for these individuals going forward," he said.

The national roundtable will review themodels that have been used elsewhere and which ones "seem to be promising."

Some provinces, for example, havespecialized long COVID clinics with several different disciplines of care-providersinvolved.

"Whether or not those are the best models to adopt and whether they provide the best level of care is still unclear to me," said Lger.

"So hopefully we'll be able to learn more at this national roundtable to give us more information to consider what is the best way to move forward in New Brunswick."

Last week, Health Minister Dorothy Shephard told reporters work on long COVIDis ongoing.

"It's always been on my radar," she said.

Agroup of Moncton scientistsis trying to gather as much information as possible on thesymptoms, what patients need to recover and the risk factors.

"It's all still relatively new. So that data is still being collected. And we'll be working with our[regional health authority] partners and those who have a handle on long COVID to see how we need to proceed in the future," Shephardsaid.

National survey launched

In Nova Scotia, the governmentcreated MyCOVIDRecoveryNS.cain August 2021, a website with the most up-to-date information available about managing or treating the lingering symptoms of COVID-19.

Ontario published a report on a review of its long COVID situation last month.

The Public Health Agency of Canada and Statistics Canada have launched a survey to get a broad idea of how common it is for people to feel lingering effects after COVID-19 infection.

"We probably anticipate that the impact of long COVID is going to be quite substantial," Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam has said.

The public health agency says there have been reports of more than 100 symptoms associated with the condition.

The most common ones, according to PHAC, are fatigue, memory problems, anxiety, depression and even post-traumatic stress disorder.