Study Finds There Are 4 Subtypes of Long COVID
Why does this matter?
The study didn't necessarily discover anything new about long COVID—it simply categorized data. But long COVID is a broad complication of COVID-19 and that can make it difficult for doctors to accurately identify who may have the condition, as well as how to treat it, says William Schaffner, M.D., an infectious disease specialist and professor at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. “This is a nice way to categorize the different long COVID types,” he says.
Not everyone with long COVID will fit neatly into a subtype, says Thomas Russo, M.D., professor and chief of infectious disease at the University at Buffalo in New York. However, he says, breaking down this broad illness into different categories can help doctors and researchers find patterns. “Maybe there are some mechanisms or a certain mechanism that is driving a subtype more than another,” he says.
Dr. Schaffner says that researchers are “heading in the right direction” to try to figure out long COVID. “It’s increasingly diagnosed as the average internist and family doctor becomes more familiar with long COVID and its various presentations,” he says. Many major medical centers have also formed long COVID clinics to try to study why the condition happens, and how to better treat patients.
If you suspect you may have long COVID, Dr. Schaffner recommends reaching out to your healthcare provider to start. They may be able to refer you to a specialist or send you to a specialty long COVID clinic for help. It's also a good idea to "closely monitor" the signs and symptoms you have, so you can give your healthcare professional an accurate picture of what's going on with you, Dr. Wang says.
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