As of: 06/30/2021 07:47 a.m.
After a Covid illness, the consequences of the infection have not yet survived for thousands of people nationwide. Doctors fear that the number of Long Covid patients will even increase.
Nationwide, thousands of people who have survived a Covid 19 disease caused by the coronavirus suffer from the long-term consequences of the infection.
That comes from a balance sheet of the second largest German health insurance company Barmer. As the news agency dpa reports, in the period between November and March 2021 alone, the health insurance company counted around 2,900 insured persons who were affected by long or post-Covid symptoms.
Many could not even recognize symptoms
The number of people who suffer from long-term effects could be even higher. Ursula Marschall, head physician at Barmer, assumes that many people affected are not aware that they are suffering from Long Covid because of the inconsistent symptoms. It is often difficult to differentiate when the acute viral infection stops and the long-term effects begin. In addition, according to Marschall, Post-Covid has only been recorded as an independent item in the billing system of doctors since January.
The German pension insurance is also preparing for a growing number of post-Covid patients who will need rehabilitation treatments, among other things. “I am assuming that we will see a significant increase in the next few months,” said Susanne Weinbrenner from the prevention department of pension insurance.
According to Weinbrenner, the most common symptoms of which patients are already being treated for Long-Covid include exertional difficulty breathing, restricted resilience, muscular weakness, anxiety disorders, depression, chronic kidney disease and chest pain.
In addition to physical stress, there is also psychological stress
A corona illness apparently leads to long-term consequences for those affected more often than infections with other pathogens, says Volker Köllner, who heads the Psychosomatic Rehabilitation research group at Charité Berlin. However, it does not only refer to physical consequences. Around every fourth patient who had to be ventilated because of a Covid 19 disease was also subsequently affected by psychological stress.
Women more often affected
According to the Barmer numbers, post-Covid syndromes are more common in women than men. They are also very age-dependent. For example, women aged 60 and over developed post-Covid syndromes about six times more often than men under 40 years of age after a slight course. However, according to Köllner, the majority of patients with mild disease recover within around three months without serious consequences.
RKI reports almost 800 new infections
The number of new corona infections that could result in Covid 19 disease is falling in Germany, however. In the morning, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) reported 808 new cases recorded by the health authorities within one day. For comparison: on Wednesday last week, the value was 1016 new infections. In the past 24 hours, 56 people who were verifiably infected with the corona virus died.
The seven-day incidence nationwide drops to 5.2 compared to 5.4 on Tuesday and a value of 7.2 a week ago.
According to the RKI, more than 3.7 million people across Germany have been infected with the pathogen since the outbreak of the pandemic in Germany. 90,875 people died in connection with corona infection. More than 3.6 million German citizens are considered to have recovered after an infection.