It has been nearly two-and-a-half years since Malaysia’s first Covid-19 lockdown, yet, there is still a lack of awareness of how much damage the coronavirus causes a body.
National Early Childhood Intervention Council advisor Datuk Dr Amar Singh HSS said it also does not help that the medical world is trying to understand the virus and the conflicting views sometimes confuse people.
For example, patients who test positive only have to be isolated for five days in the United States but seven in Malaysia.
But latest studies show that some patients can still spread the disease up to nine days after testing positive.
“There is also a degree of ‘tidak apa’ (couldn’t care less) by people about following the standard operating procedure and the after-effects of testing positive,” said Dr Amar.
“Many have not heard of long Covid, despite studies showing that up to 30 per cent of patients suffer from it,” he added.
Some long Covid symptoms include tiredness or fatigue that interferes with daily life, difficulty breathing or shortness of breath, cough, chest pain, heart palpitations, difficulty thinking or concentrating, headache, sleep problems, lightheadedness, depression or anxiety, diarrhoea, joint and muscle pain.
Dr Amar said many are also fatigued with the long, draining pandemic.
“They are tired of the need to constantly ‘keep up their guard’ and limit their social interactions. They want to ‘move on’.”
“Even though the World Health Organisation advocates caution, people want to live as if we are in a ‘post-pandemic’ period.
He added while much has been written about the risk and damage of long Covid, not everyone reads the information. In addition, many divergent views have been expressed online, even by medical professionals that confuse or minimise the issue.
Dr Amar and a group of other experts – Chia-Yi Tay, Sharifah Tahir and Yuenwah San – are concerned about the lack of awareness for those struggling with long Covid.
Chia-Yi is a speech-language therapist and vice-president of the Malaysian Association of Speech-Language and hearing, Sharifah is a Care Partner, Dementia Advocate and Founder of UniquelyMeInitiatives, while Yuenwah is the Honorary Senior Advisor (Disability Inclusion), Social Development Division, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.
“Recognising long Covid requires us to highlight it as a problem and be honest to the data.
“Everyone has a role to share the data and science so that we can become more informed and act on it.
Long Covid-related cognitive impairment does not discriminate. The data available in other countries suggest that it occurs more often in those admitted to ICU, women and young adults but could occur in anyone.
The experts suggest five areas for action to reduce the long Covid burden and its impact on the community.
There are:
- Cognitive Screening: To enable more healthcare professionals to recognise and diagnose long Covid and not dismiss it as “just psychological”.
- Support Platform: As a form of mutual support and getting information on professional help and health facilities that have expertise and experience in helping persons with long Covid.
- Raising awareness: Access to reliable sources and updated information on Long Covid risk to be regularly shared as public information. This would encourage the public to be more willing to take personal risk reduction measures.
- Prevention: Maintain protection via reliable mask use and effective indoor ventilation, and complete the primary vaccinations and boosters.
- Data: We need good Malaysian data (disaggregated) to understand in depth those at highest risk, how long it lasts, and what is effective to treat it, to shape public information targeted at mitigating high-risk behaviour to protect especially vulnerable population groups.
Malaysia recorded 2,464 Covid-19 cases yesterday with nine deaths. The country has recorded 4,757,752 cases and 36,145 deaths since the pandemic started in 2020.
