Sufferers battle to shake off 'long COVID'
Helen Sideropoulos had a thriving career as a project manager.
But since contracting COVID-19 over nine months ago - she now struggles to concentrate for long enough to read just one page of a novel.
The Canadian-born businesswoman has lived in France for nearly 30 years and is now suffering from so-called ‘long COVID.’
She’s one of many calling for more awareness.
"I was not in ICU. I was not intubated, I was not put in an artificial coma. I was only in the hospital for a week. And yet, months later, I still can't go back to work, even though it's one of my deepest desires right now. And yes people are not talking about us."
Studies estimate the long-lasting after-effects of coronavirus may occur in 5 to 20 percent of cases.
But one year on from the start of the pandemic, some sufferers are saying not enough is being done.
Helen is treated by Nicolas Barizien -- a sports doctor who runs the rehabilitation unit in a Paris hospital.
"Right now lots of doctors in France and around the world are doing what we call a breakdown, we're trying to understand which signs go together and whether there are predictive factors that enable us to identify a long COVID. Because right now I can't tell you who in France in this second wave is getting COVID and who will get long COVID."
Barizien says MRI scans on patients' hearts and brains show that tissue itself is undamaged for most sufferers, so symptoms are down to a dysfunction in the body which is not well understood.
He says medical treatment has got better, though, with much of it focusing on rehabilitation therapy.
