If you\u2019ve had COVID-19, Dr. Vett Lloyd wants to speak to you. In fact, even if you haven\u2019t been diagnosed with the disease, but are in a high-exposure group, Lloyd wants to hear about your experience.<\/p>\n
The Mount Allison researcher, who normally spends her time on Lyme disease, is studying the long term health implications of COVID-19.<\/p>\n
In the first phase of her study, Lloyd is looking to survey anyone who has experienced COVID-19, with or without symptoms, with mild or severe cases. She\u2019s also hoping to get participation from those who are at high risk for exposure, like people working in health care, education, and retail.<\/p>\n
Lloyd says that early on in the study of COVID-19 it was discovered that while most people recovered from the disease, \u201cthere was a subset of people who even after the period of time you\u2019d expect the virus to be gone, they remained ill, with anything along from fatigue, brain fog, muscle pain.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lloyd says COVID-19 is not the first coronavirus disease to feature long term complications.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019d seen that with SARS, as well. And that was a similar type of virus,\" she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we wanted to find out what was going on with the people who ended up with chronic ongoing symptoms after the COVID infection,\u201d says Lloyd.<\/p>\n
People with ongoing symptoms, sometimes called COVID long-haulers, have reported issues having their symptoms recognized for what they are.<\/p>\n
Lloyd says she has heard such stories from some.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the medical profession is catching up. Everyone is learning very quickly about this illness,\u201d she says. \u201cBut yes, it\u2019s difficult when you end up with any kind of chronic disease, and whether that\u2019s after COVID, or after Lyme disease, or after a surgery, after any kind of traumatic experience. Some people will have problems retaining their health fully. And it\u2019s very hard to track down what the problem is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lloyd has had 200 survey participants so far.<\/p>\n
\"And we\u2019re really grateful for that, because these are people who have been and remain very ill,\u201d says Lloyd. \u201cTo take the time to fill out a survey when you\u2019re ill is just a really great commitment to research.\u201d<\/p>\n
And now the call is being broadened to include, \u201cpeople who are not ill or who have recovered or people who we didn\u2019t connect with the first time around,\u201d says Lloyd.<\/p>\n
Participants for the first phase survey can come from anywhere in Canada.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to find out what your experiences were like,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd then from that, we\u2019re going to see if we can find a pattern.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lloyd says she\u2019s been encouraged to seek out people in the Atlantic provinces to participate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess it says something about the Maritimes that one of the reasons they were so anxious to include us is that they wanted a pool of people where not everyone had experienced COVID,\u201d says Lloyd.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s early days for any sort of statistics on how many people experience long-haul COVID-19 symptoms, but Lloyd says, \u201cit looks like it\u2019s anywhere from 10 per cent to 40 per cent, as a very rough estimate.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt does depend on where you are in the world,\u201d she says, \u201cwhich probably relates to the genetics of the people who live there, the strain of virus\u2026 your gender, your age, whether or not there\u2019s anything else going on with you, whether you\u2019ve had previous infections that you didn\u2019t notice but which become reactivated,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of stuff going on,\u201d says Lloyd. \u201cAnd we\u2019re trying to tease out what that is, because you can\u2019t really fix it until you know what the problem is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lloyd says privacy of participants in the survey will be well-respected, and the study has passed ethics reviews at two universities.<\/p>\n
Two follow-up studies are being planned, one to check in with people after a year, and another focused on populations in Ontario and New Brunswick which will incorporate blood testing, says Lloyd, \u201cto see if we can help figure out what\u2019s going on with those who remain ill.\u201d<\/p>\n
The study is funded in part by the\u202fNew Brunswick Innovation Foundation in partnership with the New Brunswick Health Research Foundation\u202fand the\u202fAtlantic Canada Opportunities Agency.<\/p>\n
Click here for a link to Dr. Vett Lloyd\u2019s survey<\/a>.<\/p>\n Hear Vett Lloyd in conversation on\u00a0Tantramar Report<\/a>:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n