"Underestimated problem" - Leopoldina President sees a need for research on Long Covid

The President of the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, Gerald Haug, still sees a considerable need for research on Long Covid. "Long Covid is a greatly underestimated problem with only limited treatment options so far," said Haug of the dpa news agency in Mainz. He himself knows affected "young sporty people who don't even have an hour of energy a day". "The causes and the different symptoms are not yet fully understood."

According to an analysis carried out for the World Health Organization (WHO), at least 17 million people in Europe were affected by long-COVID symptoms in the first two years of the pandemic. The research suggests that women are twice as likely to develop Long Covid than men. In addition, the long-Covid risk increases drastically after a severe corona infection, the treatment of which required hospitalization.

An institute in Rostock, which claims to be unique in Germany, wants to contribute to better handling of the late effects of corona in the future. The initiator is the pulmonary specialist Jördis Frommhold, who is regarded throughout Germany as an expert on Long Covid disease and is President of the new Long Covid Medical Association.

Haug is also a director at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz. Independent of economic or political interests, the National Academy of Sciences deals with important future social issues from a scientific point of view. She communicates the results to politicians and the public and represents the issues nationally and internationally.

According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the number of known infections in Germany rose by 133,532 to over 33.51 million on Wednesday morning. That was 37,721 more cases than on Wednesday a week ago, when 95,811 were reported. The seven-day incidence was 414.0. The RKI recorded 128 more deaths related to the corona virus. The known total is 150,192.