Long Covid fundraising and awareness campaign launched

A new campaign to raise awareness around long Covid and secure funding for research into the disease has been launched by the Fight AIDS Foundation (FLS), together with the IrsiCaixa AIDS Research Institute.

The campaign's slogan – 'No t'ho inventes' in Catalan, meaning 'You're not making it up' – was chosen in sympathy with the plight of those people suffering from long Covid who have had to deal with a "lack of understanding and answers" from some sectors of the health community, on top of dealing with the symptoms of the illness itself .

Money raised will go entirely towards research being carried out by the Long Covid Unit of the Germans Trias i Pujol University Hospital in Badalona, just north of Barcelona.

The unit, led by doctors Lourdes Mateu (FLS and Germans Trias) and Marta Massanella (IrsiCaixa), has been in operation since June 2020 and consists of a team of specialists from various medical disciplines, such as infectious diseases, cardiology, neurology, psychology, dietetics and nutrition, pneumology, rehabilitation, radiology and rheumatology.

"From the first moment our priority has been to be alongside the people affected and their families," Mateu explained.

It is only from by drawing together experts from various medical fields that "we can understand the complexity of this syndrome and help patients," she added.

Long Covid clinical guidelines

In March, the Catalan health department published a clinical guideline for the treatment of long Covid, which is thought to affect between 10% and 20% of all those who test positive for the virus.