•    The SNS-O has also created a technical group to set up and coordinate comprehensive care pathways for these patients.

The Navarre Health Service (SNS-O) has created a technical work group to coordinate comprehensive care pathways for patients with persistent COVID-19 (long COVID-19) and post-COVID complications.

This multidisciplinary group is made up of primary care and specialized care professionals from the three geographic areas of the SNS-O and is led by the Service for the Effectiveness and Continuity of Care. Its goals include channeling care to these patients, establishing uniform response pathways and providing tools for treatment and self-care for early functional recovery of patients suffering from after-effects and/or persistent symptoms.

These actions will complement the care provided since May 2020 at the specific post-COVID Pulmonology consultation room for the most severe COVID-19 cases, in conjunction with Nutrition and Rehabilitation, among other medical specialties.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that around 1 in 10 people suffer from long COVID-19 up to 12 weeks after the acute phase of infection. According to the Ministry of Health, the most common symptoms include tiredness, shortness of breath, muscle pain, loss of sense of smell or taste, persistent fatigue, headache and so-called “brain fog,” which describes several symptoms associated with cognitive impairment, such as memory loss, disorientation, and learning and concentration problems.

Furthermore, the less frequent permanent after-effects of COVID-19 include pulmonary fibrosis and long-term or permanent neurological damage.

PersiCOV-19 research project

Navarrabiomed has promoted more than 30 research studies on COVID-19 patients to date. Now, in 2021, the Hospital Complex of Navarre (CHN) and Navarrabiomed have started up the PersiCOV-19 Project, a study that aims to create a registry of patients with persistent COVID-19 in order to compile information, acquire greater knowledge of the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 and make progress on the research study.

Patricia Fanlo Mateo, a specialist in Internal Medicine, is responsible for the registry and will coordinate the research projects that use it. Other researchers collaborating on this study include Dr. Julio Oteiza Olaso and Dr. Julio Sánchez Álvarez, from the Internal Medicine Service, and Dr. Marina Sesma Arrondo, a primary care specialist at the Barañain Healthcare Center.

The Navarrabiomed Clinical Trials Platform is responsible for design and implementation of the registry. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee for Drug Research of the Community of Navarre (CEIm).

Social support for patients with persistent COVID-19

The study will be implemented with funding from Navarrabiomed, as well as funding from other sources. Specifically, Murieta City Hall raised €655.40 in the Murieta New Year’s Eve Charity Run, an online event that promoted doing exercise as a way of supporting and raising awareness about people suffering from the after-effects of persistent COVID-19.

Yurema Lana González, the Mayor of Murieta, and Javier Martínez de Morentin Urrutia, a Murieta town councilor, recently visited Pamplona to deliver the amount raised by the charity race to Patricia Fanlo Mateo, a specialist in Internal Medicine at the CHN, and Eva Zalba Garayoa, the Head of the Management Area of the Clinical Trials Platform at Navarrabiomed, the organization that will channel the funds through the Miguel Servet Foundation.

In June 2020, the platform of patients with persistent COVID-19 in Navarre was created under the coordination of Virginia Mateo Solana.

Those interested in joining this platform can make contact at this email address: covidpersistentenavarra@hotmail.com.