Investigating one of the possible causes of Long Covid, researchers at Mass General Brigham have applied an experimental blood test “1,000 times more sensitive than the standard laboratory tests” to blood samples from patients who had been infected with Covid, 80 per cent of whom had reported Long Covid symptoms according to a report in the Boston Globe.
The article noted that researchers were looking at persistent virus that remained hidden in the bodies of Covid patients even after their acute infections had passed.
Emphasizing that persistent virus is probably only one of the causes of Long Covid, the study’s senior author, Dr. David Walt, cited “a single molecule test called SIMOA,” also developed in his lab, which along with the blood test, was being applied to a National Institute of Health-funded study on the use of Paxlovid on patients who had tested positive for persistent virus.
Based on statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Globe noted that close to 18 million Americans suffer from Long Covid, defined as a “chronic condition often marked by a series of debilitating symptoms that can include extreme exhaustion, difficulty breathing, neurological problems, chronic pain, and brain fog. . . . [and] more than 300 reported symptoms.”
