While there were no recorded cases in WA overnight, a recent study by the Australian National Phenome Centre (ANPC) demonstrated that 50 per cent of infected patients in WA still showed between one and seven symptoms six months after recovery. Experts are calling it ‘long covid’.Some respondents demonstrated biochemical abnormalities that could indicate the presence of other diseases such as diabetes, Parkinson’s, heart disease and liver damage.Director of ANPC and research lead, professor Jeremy Nicholson, developed Type 1 Diabetes after contracting the virus in Italy in early 2020. He said the number of people in WA suffering long covid could be in the hundreds.
“It is highly likely that several hundred people in WA, and more than 10,000 people across Australia, still have long term effects of the disease but they may not realise it,” Professor Nicholson said.“There will need to be a program to deal with these potential long-term disease risks, because the socioeconomic burden of long covid can be substantial.”Professor Peter Collignon, an infectious diseases physician at the Australian National University, said fatigue was a common symptom of long covid.“It’s ongoing fatigue; the symptoms can be found in the heart, sometimes it can be can aches and pains,” Prof Collignon told NCA NewsWire.“It’s the same as post-viral fatigue in other diseases, such as glandular fever, where recovering patients can experience fatigue for several months. For COVID-19, the problem is we don’t know what exactly the long-term effects are.”
The research has led ANPC to develop a test that can assist health professionals to predict severity of infection and monitor a patient’s recovery.ANPC has partnered with New York Stock Exchange-listed Bruker GmbH to patent the test, which identifies the pathological signature of the virus.It is not dependent upon direct detection of the virus or the respiratory symptoms and is intended to augment the current PCR test.ANPC claims the test has the potential to improve, and even shorten, the requirement for isolation and quarantining.The news would be welcomed by residents in WA after only a little more than 3000 people turned out for testing on Monday.Prof Colligon said while WA’s health system should be easily able to cope with an outbreak, the state’s testing system was alarming.“Well, 3000 tests aren’t a lot and the long lines to get tested suggests they do not have enough testing clinics and that is a concern,” he said.“Perth should be able to cope with 10,000 tests a day.”Prof also slammed WA premier Mark McGowan for placing the state into an unnecessary lockdown.“Are (state premiers) going to do this every time? Lockdown millions of people?” he asked. “It is not effective as a way to combat the virus in the medium to long term. “The majority of Aussies are not going to be vaccinated before the end of the year, so we need to follow the path of NSW where there is contact tracing and restrictions where necessary to fight outbreaks, not lock a whole city down.”
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