“I’m not curing them, I’m trying to get their heads above water”: 4 years after the first death from coronavirus, the hell of long Covid

Le Dr Larché en consultation, le 9 janvier. Il reçoit une quinzaine de nouveaux patients par semaine. Midi Libre – SYLVIE CAMBON

Associated with the flu and RSV of the winter, the coronavirus, which caused a first official death just four years ago, on January 11, 2020, is not a trivial virus for two million French people who suffer from long Covid. At the Parc clinic, in Castelnau le Lez, Jérôme Larché, specialist in internal medicine, one of the whistleblowers on the disease, sees around ten new patients arriving every week.

"What we are still missing is treatment".  Doctor Jérôme Larché, specialist in internal medicine, is convinced that "the&# The year 2024 will provide some answers, perhaps with this study “on monoclonal antibodies which stimulate the immune system”, underway in Geneva. "We don'have no solution yet. I don't tell patients that I'm going to cure them, but that I'm going to try to get their heads out of water. Those from the beginning of the afternoon, Tuesday January 9, live in the United States, carpooled from Toulouse, came as neighbors.

Since he resumed his consultations, at the Parc clinic, in Castelnau-le-Lez, Dr Larché, whistleblower on the disease, commissioned by the ;#39;Occitanie regional health agency to organize a network of the territory in long Covid referral and coordination centers designed two years ago, receives "10 to 15 new patients per week" . The pace has not slowed since the doctor opened the first dedicated consultation in France, on April 30, 2021, at the Clémentville clinic. Sixteen months earlier, on January 11, 2020, four years ago, the first death from Covid was officially announced in China. 

We quickly had to deal with the after-effects, knowing that no variant allows us to escape long Covid, even if the risk has decreased with Omicron.

"Stimulation of the vagus nerve, what do you think ?"

"Lives stopped or turned upside down" now number in the hundreds of thousands, and Jérôme Larché is convinced that "the cases are probably underdiagnosed, particularly among the elderly". 

Young, active, Françoise (1) is  like a disease sometimes described as that of young adults. A textbook case, with a plethora of medical history, scanners, MRIs, certificates… and a stint in a specialized unit, today a diary full of training sessions. speech therapy, physiotherapy, osteopathy, transcranial magnetic stimulation…

Questions and answers come forth, often the same: stimulation of the vagus nerve, what do you think ? And a daily supply of oxygen ? And… ? "He There is no guaranteed effect and it is not miraculous, the doctor often says. "You shouldn'playing apprentice sorcerers", he often adds. 

The recurring advice: do not exhaust yourself in effort retraining. "You have to go slowly and gradually. It's not a problem of muscle but of cells.

A prescription that runs out and the fear of not being able to renew it is a source of anxiety. Non-recognition of long-term illness (ALD) due to lack of knowledge of procedures, a factor of insecurity. A persistent disabling symptom opens a chasm or brings up a mountain.

"We will have tried and just for that, it will be different"

Françoise arrived with an enormous medical file, that of examinations necessary to avoid all traces of other illnesses, essential as long as' we "do not have a positive diagnostic marker". She is willing to do more to get better. What ? "I struggle, I spend my life in meetings, I'I saw that there are lots of things but I'm lost&quot ;, cowardly, with an energy tinged with weariness, this executive yesterday at ease in her position as manager, tireless worker, accustomed to "multitasking".

She would like to return to part-time therapeutic work soon. She has been on sick leave since she had Covid, on January 14, 2022. She leaves with new prescriptions, "it doesn'it doesn't seem like much but I've got something, we will have tried, and just for that, it will be different.

What we know about long Covid

The investigations follow one another on the long Covid, a reality today increasingly documented: researchers from the Amsterdam University Medical Center have just published in the scientific journal Nature Communication, on January 4, a ;study which opens avenues of understanding on the persistent fatigue of people suffering from the pathology:  the mitochondria, the "motors" muscle cells, produce less energy in them.

Fatigue or rather “exhaustion”, prefers Dr. Larch, shortness of breath, stomach aches, dizziness, digestive problems, problem eye and skin disorders… long-term Covid, thus defined when people suffer from long-term disorders, over a long period of time. from three months after infection, is associated with has a long list of symptoms. Occitanie has been pioneer in care, and has set up a territorial network to detect, support, and best treat the effects of a disease which remains little known and which affected, a year ago, two million French people, according to an estimate by Santé public France, "several hundred thousand have a severe form", explains J&rôme Larché, who participated in the study. at the first international congress on long Covid, organized from December 7 to 9 at Madrid.

"We are no longer in the debate that still prevailed a year ago on the reality or not of long Covid", welcomes Jérôme Larché. The very official National Academy of Medicine has just issued a report which highlights the “polymorphous and sometimes confusing” of the disease and its "impact on the central nervous system".

It was planned that "the pioneering work carried out in Occitanie spread at the national level", recalls the doctor. This will be "when&# 39;political news will allow it. 

(1) The first name has been changed. I subscribe to read more