Long Covid has been one of the most insidious aspects of the pandemic. While the death toll made the biggest headlines, the ongoing suffering of those whose symptoms never fully went away has been a persistent blight long after the days of lockdown, masks and long queues at vaccination centres have faded into memory.
Symptoms vary, but for many fatigue and breathlessness are major issues, which means getting up and down stairs can be difficult. This is where stairlift installation could provide vital help.
The amount of help being offered to Long Covid patients may vary. Indeed, up in Scotland the government at Holyrood has faced accusations that they have forgotten the plight of the 172,000 sufferers north of the border. However, plenty of sufferers in Birmingham and other parts of England might also feel they are being overlooked.
It is not just about government help, wherever you live in the UK. Inevitably, some doctors will be more up to date with the latest research on the condition than others, while diagnosis can take time, especially if your Covid infection was fairly recent.
The latest studies of Long Covid, carried out by researchers at the University of Maryland, have indicated that changes in brain activity are evident in sufferers.
Lead author Linda Chang said: “Their [long-COVID patients’] brain activity differed from those without prior COVID-19, indicating that their brains compensated for their deficits by reorganising the networks to maintain their performance.”
She added that the high levels of activity seen outside the “normal working memory brain network” are a common feature of those with brain injuries.
Whether this understanding will help lead to effective treatments to enable a long-awaited recovery for persistent sufferers remains to be seen and even if it does, such treatments may take some time to develop and not work for everyone.
Therefore, it is important that those who struggle with stairs as a result of the condition get the help they need, which may involve having stairlifts fitted to make getting around the house that much easier.
