News from France

This is so very difficult for pwME to do. Cheers to these brave advocates!

 

The French Committee on the Monitoring and Anticipation of Health Risks (COVARS) just published an astonishing report on long Covid that was commissioned by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Research. Millions Missing France was one of the three patient associations that participated.

The committee calls for:

- its recognition within the broader context of post-acute infection syndromes, which they acknowledge have been around for as long as can be remembered, going so far as to cite the epidemic of “Russian flu” in 1890, and should be a key part of preparedness plans to respond to future epidemics

- the recognition of the many symptoms that it causes, notably prolonged and severe fatigue that has a significant impact on daily activities, neurocognitive impairment, and a wide array of dysautonomic symptoms

- a strong opposition to the psychologisation of symptoms, by:

• writing explicitly (in bold font) that “Post-infectious syndromes are not psychosomatic disorders” and formally outlining the differences between the two
• insisting that only a minority of patients suffer from a psychosomatic disorder instead of long Covid
• noting that psychologisation results in large part from a lack of knowledge / education on post-infectious syndromes in the medical body
• noting that trials of CBT have shown statistically significant but not or very limited clinically relevant improvements, such that CBT cannot constitute a cornerstone of the treatment of long Covid
• raising awareness of the many deleterious consequences of psychologisation on patients such as misdiagnosis, occupational, financial and psychological impact (trauma, anxiety, loss of self-esteem, depression)

- a massive investment in care pathways across the whole French territory, biomedical research and medical education for all post-acute infection syndromes, including a hub for coordinating epidemiological surveys / data gathering and biomedical research

This is the first time ever that such clear-cut language is used in a report on long Covid and post-acute infection syndromes. There will probably be a significant pushback from psychosomaticians.

Link to the report (in French): https://www.enseignementsup-recherc...novembre-2023---syndrome-post-covid-29922.pdf

If someone has access to DeepL Pro, I would be very grateful if it could be translated into English.

 

(Contd)

 

France, but also bits of Luxemburg. Basically an app to track symptoms, looks kind of similar to Visible. It seems to have been built to work with health care, but haven't looked into how well, in association with France's biggest Long Covid community, Après J20 (after day 20).