The government should invest money in a central and long-term study of post-COVID syndrome in the Netherlands. This is what Professor of Internal Medicine Michèle van Vugt (Amsterdam UMC) and lung specialist Leon van den Toorn (Erasmus MC) are pleading for. Now they have to keep disappointing patients with long-term complaints after a COVID-19 infection.

An estimated tens to hundreds of thousands of people in the Netherlands are suffering from post-covid syndrome. Prof. Van Vugt: “I find it very distressing to see that relatively many people are affected by the disease and that doctors have little to offer that group at the moment”. Dr. Van den Toorn adds: "But as long as we cannot conduct specialized and collaborative research in the Netherlands, we will not get any further together. That is very frustrating, for patient and doctor”.

"Doctors and researchers who want to do more extensive research on post-covid syndrome are plentiful", Dr. van den Toorn says. But what holds them back is a lack of money. That is also the reason Erasmus MC in Rotterdam and Amsterdam UMC recently scaled down their post-COVID care considerably. In Amsterdam, only one of the four post-COVID clinics is still open. Erasmus MC stopped a specialized post-COVID program.

Post covid syndrome


Post-COVID syndrome was until recently known as prolonged covid or long covid. On the advice of the Health Council, the name was changed and we now refer to it as post-COVID syndrome when it involves persistent symptoms after COVID-19. Post means "after" in Latin. In fact, the symptoms come after COVID-19.

Still searching for the cause

As a result, both hospitals can do very little for people with long-term symptoms after COVID-19. "We can offer them hope, or help them cope with the symptoms. Sometimes an antidepressant helps. But what helps for one person does not necessarily work for another," Prof. Van Vugt says.

And in doing so, she gets to the root of the problem. After all, doctors and researchers still do not know exactly what causes post-COVID syndrome. That is also why there is still no treatment against the disease that is proven to help. Had that treatment existed, funding would probably not have been a problem either.

There have been several isolated studies of post-COVID in recent years. Those were always short, "because the money ran out again," says Dr. Van den Toorn. "What you want is a large funded project with a few major centers in the Netherlands that gets about three or four years to figure everything out."

Post-COVID symptoms


Some people maintain long-term symptoms when they have had COVID-19. If those symptoms last longer than three months. it is called post-COVID syndrome.

Patients often have symptoms as diverse as:

  • Fatigue
  • Concentration problems
  • Memory problems
  • Shortness of breath
  • Hypersensitivity to light and sound
  • Headaches
  • Moodiness and irritability
  • Sleep problems
  • Muscle pain
  • Dizziness

The symptoms may persist for months or sometimes longer. In some people, the symptoms disappear over time.

Waiting to see what Minister Kuipers decides

Prof. Van Vugt concurs with the pulmonologist. "The symptoms associated with post-COVID syndrome are very broad. That is why we need to combine different research groups." Unraveling what the underlying causes of post-COVID syndrome are, she says, should be the first goal. "We know some of that now. Coming to a treatment is then the next step."

Pediatrician Károly Illy, President at the Dutch Society for Pediatrics (NVK), supports a collaborative approach to post-COVID syndrome, but stresses that it must include attention to young patients. For example, future treatments may work in adults but not in children. "A child is not a small adult," he points out.

Minister Ernst Kuipers (Public Health) considers it of great importance to combine knowledge and expertise. Exactly how he envisions this, he plans to let the House of Representatives know this month. In any case, a physical expertise center in one place does not have his preference. In the meantime, he is also looking for ways for the Netherlands to join European studies on post-COVID syndrome.

Source: read the original (Dutch) article by Lennart ‘t Hart for NU.NL here. 

Read our previously published articles about post-COVID syndrome with Professor of Internal Medicine Michèle van Vugt here: