Letter to the Editor
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Sep 26, 2022; 10(27): 9967-9969
Published online Sep 26, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i27.9967
Transition beyond the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic: Need to address the long-term health impacts of COVID-19
Constantinos Tsioutis, Andreas Tofarides, Nikolaos Spernovasilis
Constantinos Tsioutis, School of Medicine, European University Cyprus, Nicosia 2404, Cyprus
Andreas Tofarides, State Health Services Organisation, Nicosia General Hospital, Nicosia 2029, Cyprus
Nikolaos Spernovasilis, Infectious Diseases Department, German Oncology Center, Limassol 4108, Cyprus
Nikolaos Spernovasilis, School of Medicine, University of Crete, Heraklion 71003, Greece
Author contributions: All authors equally contributed to manuscript concept and writing; all authors gave their final approval to the manuscript contents.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have nothing to disclose.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Nikolaos Spernovasilis, PhD, Director, Infectious Diseases Department, German Oncology Center, Nikis 1, Limassol 4108, Cyprus. nikspe@hotmail.com
Received: July 9, 2022
Peer-review started: July 9, 2022
First decision: August 4, 2022
Revised: August 5, 2022
Accepted: August 21, 2022
Article in press: August 21, 2022
Published online: September 26, 2022
Abstract

Despite gaps in knowledge, long-term sequelae of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infections are globally acknowledged and thus require special attention by public health organizations and services. Therefore, it is necessary to support and promote public health initiatives that address long-term disability due to COVID-19.

Keywords: Pandemic, COVID-19, Long-term, Long-covid, Post-covid, Post-acute COVID-19 syndrome

Core Tip: Despite publications and announcements focusing on the current transition phase of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, there is an ongoing need to address the growing population of patients with long-term sequelae due to COVID-19 infection. Therefore, public health organizations and national authorities are required to prepare and support initiatives that can appropriately address long-term disability due to COVID-19. Such initiatives result from close collaboration between health professionals, researchers and patients and span across three pillars: Public health, healthcare systems and research.