Saturday 11 June 2022 11:22 PM UK coronavirus vaccines triumph IS helping to keep long Covid at bay, insist ... trends now

Saturday 11 June 2022 11:22 PM UK coronavirus vaccines triumph IS helping to keep long Covid at bay, insist ... trends now
Saturday 11 June 2022 11:22 PM UK coronavirus vaccines triumph IS helping to keep long Covid at bay, insist ... trends now

Saturday 11 June 2022 11:22 PM UK coronavirus vaccines triumph IS helping to keep long Covid at bay, insist ... trends now

It is the dreaded condition that has affected about two million Britons but remains a mystery to scientists more than two years after it emerged.

Long Covid, which blights sufferers with months of headaches, muscle pain and disabling fatigue, struck down its many victims regardless of age, underlying health conditions or vaccination status.

But earlier this year, research published by Israeli scientists suggested that, for most people, it is now no longer a threat.

The study, of 3,000 people who had contracted Covid, found those given two vaccines were up to 70 per cent less likely to suffer long Covid than unvaccinated people.

British experts have since added that the UK's triumphant vaccine programme, with more than half the population triple-jabbed and many receiving a fourth top-up dose, means protection against long-term symptoms could be even higher.

Long Covid, which blights sufferers with months of headaches, muscle pain and disabling fatigue, struck down its many victims regardless of age, underlying health conditions or vaccination status. But earlier this year, research published by Israeli scientists suggested that, for most people, it is now no longer a threat

Long Covid, which blights sufferers with months of headaches, muscle pain and disabling fatigue, struck down its many victims regardless of age, underlying health conditions or vaccination status. But earlier this year, research published by Israeli scientists suggested that, for most people, it is now no longer a threat

But research published last week seemed to dash these hopes. A US study of more than 30,000 double-vaccinated people, documented in the journal Nature, found that two jabs reduced the risk of long-term symptoms by a meagre 15 per cent.

So what's going on? And how worried do we need to be?

First, it's important to define long Covid.

Patients can be split into two groups. The first comprises those who were hospitalised with serious Covid symptoms, and the second those whose Covid illness was initially mild but then lingered or even worsened.

Patients in the first group may have suffered serious damage to vital organs such as the lungs or heart. As a result, it can take months for them to recover. Because the Covid jabs are so effective at protecting against severe disease, doctors agree that there are now vanishingly few of these patients.

But the majority of the UK's long Covid sufferers are in the second group. Some battle breathlessness and exhaustion, unable to work or complete simple tasks.

Doctors are still unsure what triggers the condition in these people, but there are several theories.

One is that symptoms are brought on by reservoirs of the virus that remain in certain areas of the body after infection. A US study in 2021 found that Covid cells remained in the gut months after infection.

Experts say that, if this is true, then it is possible anyone who gets infected, even the triple-jabbed, could still get long Covid. But the chances would be diminished.

'The whole point of the Covid vaccines is that they train the immune system to find and destroy Covid in your body, so it's likely that after three jabs the virus is going to find it hard to hide,' says Dr David Strain, senior clinical lecturer at the University of Exeter Medical School. 'But it is possible that, in small numbers, the virus could still slip past the immune system and remain in the body.'

Another theory is that the virus can cause the immune system to malfunction and attack healthy cells. If this is true, not only should three jabs reduce the risk of long Covid, it should also reduce how long sufferers feel unwell.

A US study of more than 30,000 double-vaccinated people, documented in the journal Nature, found that two jabs reduced the risk of long-term symptoms by a meagre 15 per cent. So what's going on? And how worried do we need to be?

A US study of more than 30,000 double-vaccinated people, documented in the journal Nature, found that two jabs reduced the risk of long-term symptoms by a meagre 15 per cent. So what's going on? And how worried do we need to be?

'Vaccination prepares the immune system for the shock of Covid – which stops it going into overdrive when you get infected,' says Professor Manoj Sivan, an expert in rehabilitation medicine at Leeds University. 'If this theory is true, the immune system will be much more likely to return to

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