• Coronavirus has a varied presentation in people.
• While it can be asymptomatic in some, it can lead to mild to severe symptoms in others.
• And is some it has led to deaths.
• There are many patients of coronavirus who have got symptoms but the symptoms have been ongoing now for more than 100 days.

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Only a few of them know the reason for their prolonged disease. They call themselves the long-haulers.

But all of them are unsure whether they would recover completely from the disease. They might end up on the disabled list and lose their jobs. They have formed their own social media groups to offer support to each other.

Long-haulers-coronavirus disease

The current pandemic has many confusing and ill-understood angles to it. While many of the cases end up with complete recovery or death, there are a few of them who continue to have symptoms of the disease even after 100 days of the infection.

They have not completely recovered still. Some of them know the reason for it. While others have no answers to their prolonged ailment.

Such patients called themselves Long-haulers. Their symptoms have persisted longer than their peers and even doctors did not anticipate that such a group might emerge in this acute infection.

The illness of this group continues unabated and since they had no explanation for it, they turned to the internet to get some answer.

The support groups of such patients

Such patients have not tried to seek solace in social media. They formed online groups on Facebook, Reddit, and Slack. They use it for comfort and also to get some answers. Many of them realized that they have common problems and are able to share their stories with each other. They also share health updates here.

Peggy Goroly, 58 is one such patient from Long Island and she said:

“We’re all kind of diagnosing each other,”

“You’ll hear someone else say something and then you realize it’s happening to you, too.”

She has had symptoms since 5 March 2020. She tested positive in April as well as in May. She cautioned:

“I try to spread the word around to other people that they should be very careful, this isn’t a joke, and I’m still sick and people can’t understand. The only place where I get my recognition that it’s okay and it’s normal is the group.”

The reason for this prolonged illness

Doctors do not have all the answers for the prolongation of these symptoms. It is thought to be primarily the virus’s persistence or damage, it did to the lungs or other body systems. Because coronavirus can infect not only the lungs but also the gut, heart, kidneys, liver, etc.

Besides, it is believed that there might be some auto-immune process occurring in these patients which had led to the persistence of the symptoms.

Also read Six new symptoms and some rare symptoms of covid-19 infection!

As a consequence of this illness, many patients would have to face the loss of jobs and unemployment. Due to their inability to work, they might have to file for a disability card and request financial aid from the government.