Corona
Research started into CALD, the new chronic pulmonary disease caused by corona
An attending physician is looking at a CT scan of the lungs of a corona patient at the nursing ward for corona patients
at the HMC Westeinde hospital - Image ANP
The Lung Fund wants to unite patients, physicians and researchers to fight together against the new chronic pulmonary disease that arises when the corona virus has left the body.
Hans Marijnissen - 7 May 2020, 1:00 a.m.
The Lung Fund warns that the proliferating corona virus in many cases leads to a new chronic pulmonary disease. The scars in the lungs cause a kind of pulmonary fibrosis, but with a totally different cause. The new disease, which comes next to asthma and COPD, already has a name: CALD, which stands for
Covid Associated Lung Disorder.
In order to prevent that patients continue to walk around for years with misunderstood symptoms after corona recovery, as happened with the other cross-contamination animal disease Q-fever, the Lung Fund wants to register them at an early stage, and link them to medical care and scientific research.
"We know for sure that a large, new patient group is coming to us and we have to anticipate this, but of course we also still don't know a lot," says Michael Rutgers, director of the Lung Fund in Trouw newspaper today. In addition to fibrosis, ex-corona patients can also suffer from thrombosis. But what the ultimate long-term effects of corona on the lungs could be will only become apparent in the next few years."
Michael Rutgers, director of the Lung Fund - Image Bram Petraeus
Corona lung square for digital encounter
According to Rutgers, in order to be able to follow the development of new lung patients properly, it is necessary that we do not make the same mistake as with Q-fever which, like the corona, jumped over from animals (goats) to humans. At the time, many people with various complaints knocked on the door of different specialists, without it being recognized promptly that these complaints had the same source. Thus, according to Rutgers, valuable time was lost and patients did not feel acknowledged.
That's why - in consultation with lung specialists - the provisional name CALD was quickly introduced. If someone suffers after corona, he or she has CALD, to whatever degree. After all, a large part of that pathology's syndrome has yet to be defined.
Patients with CALD must also be able to be followed according to the Lung Fund. That is why a special digital '
Coronalongplein' [Corona lung square] has been developed that can be accessed from Thursday. More than five hundred ex-corona-patients with CALD symptoms have already enrolled, but the expectation is that there will be many more. The first function of this square is to accommodate the digital encounter. Rutgers: "In a safe haven patients can tell stories, ask questions and exchange experiences. This is incredibly important for people who have gone through a corona crisis individually".
Specialists to open shops on the square
On the
Coronalongplein [in Dutch] people can also fill in a so-called 'disease burden indicator'. This gives them insight into the seriousness of their complaints. Slowly but surely, 'shops' of specialists are also to be opened there where patients can seek help: from a dietician, a psychologist, a physiotherapist or a lung specialist".
But these shops will also provide a window to the patients on the square. According to Rutgers, the intention is that representatives of health care and science should be able to monitor visitors to the square, to see how the characteristics of CALD will develop in the coming years, and what problems the disease poses for individual patients. "In this way, specialist care and research will be created based on what patients submit".
In doing so, the Lung Fund also wants to combat 'excessive proliferation' in corona research. Rutgers cites the example of a university hospital in which seventy separate plans now exist for research among corona patients. "We really shouldn't go that way. It is necessary to work together, share knowledge and spend research money efficiently. And in doing so, the patient's questions must take center stage".
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