UAE: Coronavirus patients to be monitored for long Covid symptoms

A new tool launched on Monday will help authorities in Abu Dhabi determine patients who are likely to develop the post-Covid-19 syndrome.

The Department of Health’s Covid-19 Long-Term Effects Dashboard provides “important data that helps monitor and follow up on complications experienced by those recovering from Covid-19”.

The dashboard will use artificial intelligence to measure the probability of developing the post-Covid-19 syndrome, also known as long Covid.

It will enable researchers to understand the long-term impact of Covid-19 and associated diseases.

Post-Covid-19 syndrome sees symptoms persist for longer than a month and may lead to medical complications.

Some patients in the UAE have reported feeling the effects of the infection for months.

A study done in May last year suggested that almost half of Covid ‘long-haulers’ in the UAE and the region are battling chronic fatigue, while many are struggling with depression, insomnia and other after effects.

According to the qualitative research conducted by Arise UAE, an initiative of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, in association with RAK Hospital, chronic fatigue was among the top-most debilitating symptoms experienced by patients suffering from long Covid symptoms in the UAE and Middle East, with 47.5 per cent of them suffering from it.

According to the US-based Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, some people experience “a range of new or ongoing symptoms that can last weeks or months after first being infected with the virus that causes Covid-19”.

Symptoms range from shortness of breath to fatigue, cough, headache and joint or muscle pain, among others.