Royal Society Report (23 October 2020)
Long Covid: what is it, and what is needed?
https://royalsociety.org/-/media/policy/projects/set-c/set-c-long-covid.pdf
...In consultation with NHS England and the World Health Organisation, NICE is currently formulating definitions of the syndrome according to the length of persistence of symptoms. While the general term Long Covid is likely to continue in use, it may be helpful to distinguish between two or three categories: for example, COVID for symptoms persisting up to 3 weeks; Ongoing COVID for symptoms lasting between 3 and 12 weeks; and Post-COVID [syndrome] for symptoms persisting longer than 12 weeks.
...To aid the collection of data and to inform prevalence, the RCGP clinical policy team has also worked closely with NHS Digital and the Professional Record Standards Body (PRSB) to ensure codes will be available for us to use (in both primary and secondary care), which will help us care for our patients and inform the population based data needed to further shape the services required to fully assess and treat this disease.
The rationale for splitting post-acute and chronic:From the Final Scope document:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/gid-ng10179/documents/final-scope
1 Case definitions
For the purposes of this guideline, we will be using the terms described below to define the effects of COVID-19 at different time points. As noted above, these definitions will be continuously reviewed as evidence emerges and we begin to understand more about the long-term effects of COVID-19.
Acute COVID-19 infection
Signs and symptoms of COVID-19 for up to 4 weeks.
Ongoing symptomatic COVID-19
Signs and symptoms of COVID-19 from 4 weeks up to 12 weeks
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New SNOMED CT Concept terms for inclusion in January 31, 2021 release:
1119302008 Acute COVID-19
1119303003 Post-acute COVID-19
1119304009 Chronic post-COVID-19 syndrome
is entirely arbitrary. Very disappointing to see such nonsense. Will only continue the confusion over PVFS to CFS. Especially given months of "everyone will recover in 2 weeks" manta. There is a reason 2 weeks was used, because it is what is typically expected as recovery from infective illness. Why it is turned into 12 weeks here, I can't imagine other than stemming from the same kind of absolute confusion that caused ME to be FUBAR.12 weeks: Recovery from any infective illness can take time. Although some studies address prevalence, these are subject to bias and the prevalence of COVID-19 symptoms at different time points remains unclear. The 12 week time period used for the purposes of this guideline has been developed by consensus and aligns with other related guidance on appropriate follow-up and discharge