First Dutch clinics treating Long Covid patients ready to open

Three clinics specialized in the treatment of Long Covid will open their doors at academic hospitals in Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Maastricht on November 1.

From that date, GPs can refer patients, many of whom have suffered from Covid-related symptoms over the past four years.

About 1.3 million people were still suffering from the consequences of infection with the virus after three months. More than half have recovered, but about 450,000 people are still limited in their daily activities, while 100,000 are almost completely disabled, experts say.

The initial intake is aimed at people who have had complaints for more than a year, have lost at least 25% of their normal functioning and have no other diseases that could explain their complaints.

The hospitals hope to be able to treat 500 to 1,000 patients in the first few months, coordinator and chairman of the Post Covid expertise team Léon van den Toorn tells the ADVERTISEMENT.

“That’s a fraction of the total, but we hope others benefit from what we learn in the clinics,” he said.

The clinics will register complaints using questionnaires and patients will receive the same medical examinations, after which the most appropriate treatment can be chosen, according to Van den Toorn.

For example, patients with extreme fatigue may be given naltrexone, which has been shown to help but whose effects have not been well monitored. “We are going to do that here, so that we can provide well-considered advice about its use,” pulmonologist Merel Hellemons told the newspaper.

All treatments offered are experimental, Hellemons said, but have been shown to relieve symptoms. By putting all post-Covid patients on the same medical route, doctors hope to find treatments that will help large groups of them and ultimately find a cure.

“We are still a long way from finding a cure, but we are now putting the pieces of the puzzle together. If we discover that even four or five of the treatments can work, we will be very happy,” said Van den Toorn.

Other hospitals are expected to open their own post-Covid clinics in the coming months.