Failure to recognize the scope of the illness will harm countless people around the globe
The WHO recently released its clinical case definition for what it called “post-Covid-19 condition”. This definition is too little too late, its myopic scope does not recognize the breadth of disability and disease caused by long Covid and its long term implications on quality of life and life expectancy. The millions of people around the globe suffering from long Covid deserve better.
It is unclear why the WHO definition snubs and does not embrace the term “long Covid”. The term was coined by patients who also refer to themselves as long-haulers. These patients-advocates-researchers galvanized attention around the existence of this disease and brought long Covid to the spotlight. In a short few months, they created a formidable patient-led advocacy and research movement that changed the arc of medical history. They were the first to survey their membership and catalogue the broad array of clinical problems caused by Covid-19. Their contributions will go down in the annals of history as an important inflection point.
Ziyad Al-Aly is a physician-scientist and long Covid researcher
