A SENIOR Bahraini medic has urged the public to stay vigilant and not return to habits that once resulted in Covid-19 – with studies citing recklessness as a reason for community reinfection.
National Taskforce to Combat Covid-19 monitoring committee head Lieutenant Colonel Dr Manaf Al Qahtani also highlighted weakened immunity, irregular treatment, and a false sense of recovery as possible causes of reinfection.
The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) considers a person to be reinfected if they test positive 90 days or more after their first positive test.
With the emergence of the Omicron variant, statistics in the US have revealed a dramatic surge in reinfections. However, the CDC said it was ‘still learning’ the phenomenon.
“The recurrence of infection with any respiratory virus may be due to repetition of harmful behaviours that allowed the virus to cause infection,” tweeted Dr Al Qahtani.
Meanwhile, the BDF Hospital microbiologist stressed the need for rehabilitation and comprehensive care to tackle long-Covid – another source of concern among the public.
Long-Covid or post-Covid are umbrella terms that refer to coronavirus symptoms that persist beyond the initial phase of infection. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has defined it as ‘typically lasting three months from the onset of Covid-19, with symptoms that last at least two months and cannot be explained by an alternative diagnosis’.
“Recent studies show that the prolonged physical and psychological symptoms of Covid-19 can last for at least a year in some patients, and may be severe enough to require admission to the intensive care unit,” Dr Al Qahtani said on Twitter yesterday.
“There is currently no specific drug treatment for people with a post-Covid-19 condition and we don’t know how long it would last.
“However, there is data to suggest that comprehensive care and rehabilitation may be beneficial.
“We are still studying the reasons some people develop this condition, and the best ways to treat it.
“Symptoms can be either respiratory or systematic and anyone could be prone to long-Covid, but based on studies, elderly and immunocompromised populations are at a higher risk.”
Common symptoms of long-Covid include fatigue, shortness of breath, chest pain or tightness, problems with memory and concentration, insomnia, dizziness, joint pain, depression and anxiety, rashes, earaches, diarrhoea, stomach pain, loss of appetite, high temperature, cough, headaches, sore throat and changes to sense of smell or taste.
Dr Al Qahtani highlighted international studies to emphasise the importance of vaccines in reducing the impact of long-Covid.
He also stated that children may face long-term health issues, while dismissing claims to the contrary.
“There are evidences of vaccine reducing the risk of developing long-Covid,” he said in a tweet.
“In February, the UK Health Security Agency published a review of 15 long-Covid studies from the UK and across the world. They found that people who were infected with Covid after having two doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca or Moderna vaccines or one dose of the Janssen vaccine were half as likely to develop lasting Covid symptoms compared with those who were unvaccinated, or had taken only one dose.
“Researchers also found a reduction in duration of long-Covid symptoms - of up to six months.
”Long Covid is not contagious, its symptoms are caused by your body’s response to the virus continuing beyond the initial illness.
“Having long-Covid symptoms will not test you positive for the virus.”
Bahrain till date has recorded 532,265 infections which include 16,682 active cases, 514,121 recoveries and 1,462 deaths.
More than 80pc of the estimated 1.5m population (1,213,857) have received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine until Wednesday, while 82pc (1,231,637) have taken at least one shot. A total of 967,782 (64.5pc) people have taken the booster jab as well.
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