Canada enters 5th year of COVID-19. Are we falling short in treatment?
As Canada enters its fifth year navigating COVID-19, some experts and advocates are worried treatment options for the virus remain disappointingly inadequate.
Despite significant strides in understanding the virus, Jennifer Hulme, a 42-year-old emergency physician at the University Health Network in Toronto, says many Canadians suffering from long-term COVID-19 are left without many options.
She is one of them.
“I got COVID on April 1, 2022, and I’ve been sick ever since,” she told Global News, adding that when she first contracted the virus it was “relatively mild.”
“I wasn’t completely bedbound for the full 10 days. I was able to walk around, and I was taking care of my toddler, who also had COVID at the same time,” she said. “I felt quite confident that I would be able to get back to my normal.”
After testing negative on day 11, Hulme said other than lingering fatigue, she was functional and able to go back to work.
However, more than a week later, she said she was suddenly struck with a completely new set of symptoms that were “terrifying and disabling,” and exactly what she was worried about — long COVID.
Long COVID, also known as post-COVID-19 conditions, refers to physical or psychological symptoms experienced more than 12 weeks after getting infected with the virus, according to Health Canada.
While the exact number of long COVID cases remains uncertain in Canada, preliminary findings from Health Canada’s March 2023 report on the disease help shed light on the matter. It found more than 17 per cent of adults who got the virus reported longer-term symptoms after having had COVID-19.
Symptoms can range from extreme fatigue, difficulty breathing, chest pain, dizziness, depression or anxiety or stomach pain,
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