Revealed: Australia’s first long Covid clinic

Both young women have suffered ongoing debilitating chronic fatigue and brain injury after catching mild cases of Covid-19 in December last year.Together with an estimated 1.4 million other Australians, they have a condition called long Covid.Waiting lists at clinics and doctors who treat the condition are more than eight months long, with thousands of people seeking medical attention for the condition.“Before I had a job helping out families practically and emotionally and I would walk five kilometres a day, I would cook multiple meals a week to give out to people, but today my life is worlds apart. I don’t feel like myself anymore,” Ms Laing, 35, said.Her poor health meant she had to stop working at a job she loved in December – the “brain fog” so bad that she failed to recognise her own home.“I couldn’t recognise any of the driveways including ours so I had to slow down and look at the numbers to make sure I was driving up the right driveway,” Ms Laing said.Like Ms Laing, Anna de Sterke has also been feeling the terrible lingering side effects of catching Covid. “It’s really daunting to be six months into an illness that doesn’t have a cure and to see people who’ve been sick for over two years,” the 27-year-old said.Ms De Sterke suffered liver damage that resolved but finds she gets full really quickly and can only eat a few bites of food.Both women suffer terrifying heart palpitations.Ms Laing has been diagnosed with inflammation of the lining of her heart and after 30 minutes of activity needs to go to bed for the day.Professor Steven Faux, who runs a new long Covid clinic at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney said between 10 and 20 per cent of Australians infected with Covid will get the condition.Many of them are so sick they are unable to work, but unlike the US, Australians with the condition are not eligible for the disability pension. As yet doctors aren’t sure how to diagnose it or how to treat it.“It’s a bit like building the airplane while you’re flying. We don’t have a lot of treatments,” Prof Faux said.St Vincent’s clinic has 100 people on its waiting list but a shortage of doctors means just eight to 10 get treated each week.“We’re seeing very high functioning workers, you know, office workers or professionals who can’t return to work after three months,” he said.The clinic is using Tai Chi exercises to help people recover, cognitive behavioural therapy to help them learn to slow down their activity and is assisting them with graduated return to work.“We’re not set up to trial drugs yet. That will be the aim to involve people in research once those drugs are ready for trial,” Prof Faux said.In the UK, up to 12 per cent of people who were double vaccinated and caught Delta have long Covid, and 5-9 per cent of vaccinated people who caught Omicron have the condition, Professor Faux said.In addition to long Covid, people who had the virus are 28 per cent more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes.There is an urgent need for funding to run long Covid clinics and the nation must work harder to bring in migrant health workers to cope with the crisis, Professor Faux said.“I hope that there is a change in the support system medically, financially and emotionally and for this condition to be recognised,” said Ms Laing.“I hope that people who are experiencing realise they are not alone, that they’re not going crazy,” she said.