Tulane Neurologist Michele Longo talks long COVID on ReachMD podcast
According to the Centers for Disease Control, the positivity rate of COVID tests is at a five-year Thanksgiving low. At the same time, travel for the holiday is expected to return to pre-pandemic numbers, and the CDC predicts a spike in COVID-19 cases, along with influenza and RSV, leading up to Christmas.
Some patients who come down with COVID-19 during the holiday season may find their symptoms lingering into 2025. Michele Longo, MD, MPH, an Associate Professor of Neurology and the Vice Chair of Outpatient Neurology at Tulane University School of Medicine, recently joined the Clinician’s Roundtable, a podcast by ReachMD, to talk about long Covid.
Most people diagnosed with COVID-19 begin to feel better in a couple of weeks. People who see symptoms like brain fog, fatigue, and issues with taste and smell that last longer than three months should talk to their primary care physicians about the possibility of having long COVID.
“We don’t have that one medication that takes care of all the symptoms, and the one-and-done approach does not work for long COVID,” Longo told Clinician’s Roundtable. “Lifestyle modifications can be impactful to help people cope with symptoms like fatigue.”
Long COVID can be a debilitating chronic condition, and Dr. Longo says treating people with the illness requires a team of specialists from neurology to social work.
The SARS-CoV-2 virus first surfaced in December 2019, and nearly six years later, research shows COVID-19 vaccination is still the best available tool to prevent long COVID, including in children.
