More than 87,000 Covid-19 patients have been registered in Latvia since the beginning of the pandemic a year ago. Some have overcome the disease without significant consequences, but for some the virus has left health problems. At the moment, the Ministry of Health's working group is developing guidelines for the long-term monitoring of Covid-19 patients.
One of the Covid-related research programs in Latvia analyzed the state of health of 75 people who had overcome Covid-19. The main criterion for the group in question: no one had any health problems in the past, namely that everyone was completely healthy before being infected. Some had a moderate course of the disease, some had it severe, some mild and some completely without symptoms.
“The absolute majority have some pathology and deviations from the norm that wasn't there before. And this is what amazes us – patients who recovered easily, almost without symptoms – after two, three or six months they experienced symptoms that they did not have before,” said Rīga Stradiņš University professor Ludmila Vīksna.
Some symptoms are felt, some of them disappear over time. “Some didn't have complaints, but we did radiological investigations and, for example, it turned out they had a change in liver viscosity, biochemical scores and other. Because there were, for example, liver problems that people didn't even know about,” the infectologist said.
Another trend – some of the patients who had been admitted to hospital due to Covid-19 during the last year – later returned with other illnesses. East Hospital had 40 such patients. They are also in Stradiņš Hospital, where the exact number is not named.
“With various and unexpected [diseases]. Perhaps a larger group had blood clotting problems, different thromboses, and such acute things. But there were also heart disease sufferers, kidney disease, very different," Vīksna said.
Ludmila Vīksna said that guidelines are currently being developed: “I suppose it could be [ready in] about a month. Dynamic monitoring is planned for these patients. Probably the most serious diseases would be observed at the East Hospital, Stradiņš Hospital, the lighter ones could be observed by a family doctor. "
Health Ministry said that it was difficult to estimate the extent to which the Covid-19 patients should be kept under careful medical monitoring and how much it would cost.
