Clinics in Europe are offering unproven ‘blood washing’ services to help patients deal with debilitating symptoms of long Covid. The British Medical Journal reported that patients were spending up to $60,000 in clinics in Cyprus, Germany and Switzerland for treatments largely untested. Some patients who have recovered from infection reported persistent symptoms including brain fog, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, sickness and chest pain.
Some experts are concerned patients are spending vast sums of money on invasive, unproven treatments that have so far yielded mixed results. Shamil Haroon, a researcher on the Therapies for Long Covid in Non-hospitalised Patients (TLC) trial, told the BMJ there are concerns over the reliability of emerging new therapies. Some specialist clinics in Cyprus began offering the services to long-term Covid patients in March. An investigation by the BMJ has found that thousands of people have turned to clinics offering similar services.
Thousands spent on unproven treatments
A trainee psychiatrist infected with Sars-CoVirus has described how she visited a clinic in Cyprus as a last resort when her GP was unable to help her. Gitte Boumeester, from Almelo, the Netherlands, was infected after joining a Facebook group for people suffering from long-term exposure to the virus. After spending $60,000 on a series of treatments in Cyprus to treat her anorexia, Dutch nurse Anneke van der Hoorn has returned to the Netherlands with no noticeable improvement in her health. ‘I thought, what’s the worst thing I’ve got to lose?’ she says of deciding to try the treatment.
The BMJ has contacted Cyprus’s Ministry of Health and the Cyprus Medical Association to ask whether the clinic or doctor was breaking any professional or ethical standards in the country. Ms. Boumeester traveled to Cyprus after reading testimonials and research online and on the Apheresis Association’s Facebook page.
Millions living with long Covid
RAK Hospital in Ras Al Khaimah is leading the way in specialist care for long-term Covid patients in the UAE. In Britain, an estimated two million people are suffering from long Covid, with 376,000 living with symptoms for more than two years. World Health Organisation estimates that 10 percent to 20 percent of Covid-19 patients with an acute infection experience lingering symptoms for months afterwards.
Overweight people are 62 percent more likely to develop long-term health problems, according to research carried out at the Dubai International Medical School. The hospital was one of the first in the UAE to offer bamlanivimab, a lab-made antibody shown to reduce the risk of infected patients falling seriously ill.
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