China needs a scientific long COVID recovery-support platform
中国需要一个科学的长新冠康复支持平台
Hao Tan,Jiayan Liu,Fanrui Zeng
China needs a scientific long COVID recovery-support platform
中国需要一个科学的长新冠康复支持平台
Published:February 04, 2023 · Hao Tan,Jiayan Liu,Fanrui Zeng
“应建立COVID - 19康复支持平台,向公众传COVID - 19相关信息,帮助公众了解COVID - 19的症状和影响,并为患者在康复期间如何应对症状提供指导”
后冠状病毒病(又称长冠状病毒病)是后大流行时代的重大公共卫生问题。及时、充分的信息指导和支持是有效应对长冠疫情的关键。随着中国未来可能结束零冠战略,长冠似乎不可避免地将成为中国的主要担忧。根据迄今为止最长的随访研究,在中国武汉,超过55%的COVID-19患者在2年后仍有症状。中国是世界上人口最多的国家,由于长时间的新冠肺炎疫情,中国面临着严重的民族危机风险。
然而,目前中国还没有公开的权威平台来解释长冠症状,公众无法获得可靠的科学信息,导致人们对长冠的认识和科学知识很少。缺乏权威信息来源或官方知情平台来支持长冠患者,可能会延长和加剧长冠症状,并因缺乏及时指导而造成心理困扰。
此外,中国医疗资源不足(根据世界银行2017年的数据,中国医生人数仅占总人口的0.198%,这一比例接近高收入国家的一半)。缺乏医疗资源和官方康复支持平台可能导致长冠患者在康复期间得不到及时的健康指导,政府和相关工作人员无法有效应对长冠。
及时为新冠肺炎患者康复提供健康信息支持和指导是必要的,也是可以做到的。中国政府应建立COVID – 19康复支持平台,向公众传播COVID – 19相关信息,帮助公众了解COVID – 19的症状和影响,并为患者在康复期间如何应对症状提供指导,如英国国家卫生服务体系创建的“你的COVID – 19康复”网站。
最后,中国可以招募长冠患者参与旨在了解人们如何从COVID-19感染中恢复的研究项目,并为长冠康复支持平台(如美国国立卫生研究院创建的recover项目)的健康指导提供及时反馈和调整。此次招募还将为长冠研究提供有力的数据和科学证据,这可能会显著改善公共卫生对长冠的应对。
Post-COVID-19 condition (also known as long COVID) emerged as a major public health problem in the post-pandemic era.1 Timely and sufficient information guidance and support are crucial for an effective response to long COVID. With China likely to end its zero-COVID strategy in the future,2, 3 it seems inevitable that long COVID will become a major concern for China. According to the longest follow-up study so far, more than 55% of COVID-19 patients in Wuhan (China) still have symptoms 2 years later.4 As the most populous country in the world, China is at acute risk of national crisis on account of long COVID.
However, there is currently no publicly available authoritative platform to explain long COVID symptoms in China, and the public does not have access to reliable scientific information, leading to little awareness and scientific knowledge of long COVID. The absence of authoritative sources of information or official, well-informed platforms to support patients with long COVID could prolong and exacerbate the symptoms of long COVID and contribute to psychological distress due to the absence of timely guidance. In addition, China has insufficient medical resources (the number of physicians in China is only 0·198% of the total population, which is nearly half the proportion in high-income countries, according to World Bank data in 2017). The dearth of medical resources and absence of an official recovery-support platform could lead to patients with long COVID not receiving timely health guidance during recovery, and the Government and related workers being unable to respond effectively to long COVID.
It is necessary and achievable to provide timely health information support and guidance to people with long COVID during their recovery. The Chinese Government should establish a long COVID recovery-support platform to disseminate relevant long COVID information to the public, help the public understand the symptoms and effects of long COVID, and provide guidance to patients on how to cope with symptoms during their recovery, such as Your COVID Recovery website created by the UK National Health Service. Finally, China can recruit people with long COVID to participate in research projects aimed at understanding how people recover from COVID-19 infection and, in turn, providing timely feedback and adjustments to the health guidance of the long COVID recovery-support platform (such as the RECOVER project created by The National Institutes of Health in the USA). This recruitment will also provide robust data and scientific evidence for a long COVID study, which could significantly improve the public health response to long COVID.