Key Points
- The challenges experienced by long COVID patients have been detailed at an inquiry.
- Chief medical officer Paul Kelly told the inquiry that a timeline is being worked on for a national plan.
- More than 11 million COVID cases were recorded in Australia throughout the pandemic.
Australia’s top doctor has confirmed federal health officials are developing an official national strategy in how to deal with cases of long COVID.
Speaking before a parliamentary inquiry on the impacts of long COVID, chief medical officer Paul Kelly said the health department had been tasked by Health Minister Mark Butler in developing the strategy.
However, a timeline for when the strategy will be unveiled has yet to be finalised, but it is likely to be after the parliamentary inquiry has wrapped up.
“To develop such a strategy, whilst this committee is continuing to meet and to deliberate is fine, but to finalise that, we can’t do that until we receive (the committee’s) advice,” Prof Kelly said.
Developing a narrower long COVID definition
The World Health Organisation has defined “long COVID” as patients continuing to have symptoms or develop new ones three months after the initial infection.
The chief medical officer said a clear definition of long COVID would be needed going forward in order to provide more clarity on the issue, as well as more information for health professionals.
“The one we’re using at the moment, the WHO definition … they’re great for research purposes because they’re so broad,” he said.
“But in terms of trying to actually understand this thing, we have to get beyond it, and if no one else is going to do it, then we should do it here.”
The committee is also set to hear from a roundtable of experts from the Australian Academy of Science on the effects of long COVID.
Deputy chair Melissa McIntosh said the committee aimed to find ways to help support patients dealing with long COVID in the future.
“The roundtable … will bring together experts in areas such as infectious diseases, epidemiology, immunology, mental health and public health,” she said.
“This is a great opportunity for the committee to hear from individuals at the forefront of COVID research and treatment.”
Full extent of challenges unknown, long COVID sufferer says
The inquiry also heard from Karren Hill, who has long COVID and is part of a Facebook group for other people with the condition.
She said almost three years on from the beginning of the pandemic, there was still little known about the impacts of long COVID.
“This country … is still in very early stages of its response and the scale of its impact in Australia is not always fully recognised,” she said.
“Our challenges in terms of our health, jobs, careers, income and relationships and our future health outcomes are entirely unknown.”
Ms Hill said the lack of official data on the number of people with long COVID had made it difficult for support to be provided to people affected by the condition.
“This lack of strong data makes it difficult to develop appropriate policy responses and easy to dismiss the very serious urgent widespread need,” she said.
“The cost of not doing it would be too high, both for sufferers and for the country.”
Long wait times
Other members from the group said waiting times for patients to access long COVID clinics were also several months long.
There have been 18,190 COVID-related deaths in Australia since the start of the pandemic, including 892 this year as of 8 February. At least 188 deaths were reported in Australia in the last week.
Since March 2020, 5,075 COVID deaths occurred in residential aged care, 3,855 of them last year and 308 so far this year.
Australia has recorded in excess of 11.3 million during the pandemic, including almost 16,000 weekly data released on Friday. Between 5 per cent and 12.7 per cent – as many as 1.44 million – of this group are estimated to have long COVID.
There are more than 200 long COVID symptoms that have been identified, including brain fog and fatigue.
No universal clinical case definition for long COVID exists, which patients told the inquiry impeded their ability to access treatment.
“It is the lack of information, the lack of diagnosis that is causing the mental health problems,” long COVID patient Robin Austin said. “If I could have information and knowledge to understand that there is – it would help me (manage my symptoms).”
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