Does France have 2 million long Covid patients, as Roselyne Bachelot asserts?

Beyond the daily figures of Covid-19 contamination, hospitalizations, intensive care admissions and deaths, how many people affected by the virus then suffer from daily sequelae, known as the long Covid?

According to the Minister of Culture, Roselyne Bachelot, these lasting forms of the disease – intense fatigue, shortness of breath, loss of taste and smell… – concern a considerable part of more than 5 million positive cases identified in France since the start of the epidemic.

Roselyne Bachelot on Covid-19: “This disease is dirt” pic.twitter.com/ij9gVsSSRe

– BFMTV (@BFMTV) April 23, 2021

“I will not, of course, be moved by my personal case at a time when we have more than 100,000 people deceased in our country […] There is one point I would like to emphasize, it is these long Covid. There are now close to 2 million French people who are said to have been cured and who have had their lives terribly impacted, who will perhaps never find a normal life, in their personal, sentimental, professional life, because this disease is dirt, crap, ”she said during her visit to BFMTV-RMC on Friday April 23, after having herself been hospitalized with Covid-19.

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Contacted by 20 minutes, the Ministry of Culture had not responded to our requests before the publication of the article. But, at first glance, these figures seem very far from those put forward by the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, during a visit to the Nice University Hospital.
in February : “Large population studies [suggèrent qu’il y aurait] up to a third of patients who have presented a symptomatic form of Covid, and not necessarily a serious form justifying hospitalization, which would maintain several weeks, sometimes several months after this illness, symptoms which can be disabling. “

That is the equivalent of “more than 500,000 potential cases in France today”, according to the calculations of the Minister, reported by our colleagues from APM News. For Amélie Guénolé-Perrier, co-founder of the Covid Long France association, which aims to make the voice of patients heard and to advance care for this form of the disease: “several figures have circulated: 500,000, 1 million, 2 million… Considering the thousands of distress messages we receive, it doesn’t seem surprising to me, but we would like to have national statistics and be counted among the epidemic monitoring figures, we have been asking for it for a year. “

“The various studies on the subject [dont une étude anglaise parue en juin 2020] estimate that one in 10 people infected with Covid-19, – whether mild or not, or even asymptomatic – would suffer from a long Covid, ”she continues, rejoicing that Emmanuel Macron has finally integrated this problem into its political communication, by visiting long-term Covid patients at the Foch hospital in Suresnes on Thursday 23 April.

“There are probably many more patients than those counted in consultation”

An estimate confirmed by Doctor Nicolas Barizien, head of the Functional Rehabilitation service within this establishment and creator of the daily reconditioning program Réhab-Covid: “In all the Western countries that have published studies on the subject, it fluctuates between 10 and 20% of patients who have had a Covid-19 and go to consult. But we do not count people who suffer from mild persistent symptoms but do not go to consult. I do not know, today, to estimate their number, but there is probably much more than 10 or 20%. “

An opinion shared by Doctor Olivier Robineau, infectious disease specialist at the Tourcoing Hospital Center, who monitors patients with persistent symptoms of Covid-19: “2 million is neither true nor false, but it is in the range possible values ​​of people who have persistent symptoms. But that doesn’t mean they are all going to have symptoms that are going to last a very long time and that they are going to be disabling. For now, we clearly lack data, both on the number of people with persistent symptoms and on those who deem them disabling. “

For his part, Doctor David Chirio, from the Infectious Diseases department of the Nice University Hospital, qualifies: “Personally, I consider that it is not appropriate to talk about Covid long before 12 weeks, to be sure not to” simply ” be on a slow form of improvement in initial symptoms. The difficulty is the definition of the entity, the moment when it is evaluated, and the formal absence of tests or means of affirming it. The risk of over-diagnosis, especially through secondary benefits, should not be underestimated. I think 10% of Covids are still a high estimate. “

More than a year after the start of the epidemic in France and the first cases of long-term Covid, Amélie Guénolé-Perrier hopes in any case that this suffering will be better taken into account, and in particular “her recognition as a long-term affection (ALD ) ”. And David Chirio concludes: “We must support these people, support them, re-train them to the effort, ensure that no other pathology evolves independently (especially at the cardio-respiratory level, and psychological), and know how to allow time for a satisfactory recovery. It is also important to understand the purpose of people in terms of their definition of recovery and “normalcy”. “