Mayo Clinic offers program to help COVID-19 “long haulers”

ROCHESTER, Minn. (WEAU) - A Mayo Clinic doctor discussed COVID-19 recovery in a media briefing Thursday afternoon.

Dr. Greg Vanichkachorn, a Mayo Clinic occupational medicine specialist, talked about his experiences and research after months working with patients diagnosed with post-COVID syndrome.

Vanichkachorn talked about “long haulers” as they recover from COVID-19 and the research being done to learn more about the effects of having the virus. For some who may have been asymptomatic or had mild symptoms when they had COVID, long-term symptoms such as extreme fatigue, brain fog, and a wide variety of other symptoms persist. Vanichkachorn said it’s too early to have one combined diagnosis, but believes that “long COVID” is here to stay.

“We have a lot of work ahead of us, unfortunately,” Dr. Vanichhkachorn said. “The rise of the delta variant unfortunately means that this condition is not going to go away any time soon.”

“I was kind of hoping that things would cool off as we all became vaccinated or made more progress in that direction,” Vanichkachorn added.

Treatment options are available, and Vanichkachorn leads the COVID-19 Activity Rehabilitation Program at Mayo Clinic for COVID “long haulers” struggling with symptoms up to three months post-infection There is also a post-COVID care option that helps those that have symptoms that persist beyond three months post-infection.

To learn more about these programs, you can visit the Mayo Clinic website for post-COVID-19 conditions.

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