Some people who had COVID-19 struggle with lingering symptoms for a while after the infection. This is called ‘Long COVID or Post-COVID’. Examples of long-term health problems after COVID-19 include tiredness, shortness of breath and pain.
Why the Long COVID Study?
It is important to know how many people who get COVID-19 still have symptoms in the longer term, exactly what those symptoms are, and how serious they are. In the Long COVID Study, RIVM is comparing people who test positive for COVID-19 with people who test negative, or were not tested.
The Long COVID Study monitors participants over the course of a longer time period. RIVM will be looking at how often symptoms occur after a person tests positive for COVID-19, and which symptoms are reported. The researchers will also investigate whether it is possible to predict which people will have persistent symptoms, and which people will not. RIVM can use that data for scientific research on the long-term health impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Look for more information about the study or sign up to participate (in Dutch) on LongCOVID-onderzoek.
Support for Long COVID patients
As mandated by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS), an organisation known as C-support is working to assist COVID-19 patients suffering from long-term symptoms after SARS-CoV-2 infection. C-support informs, advises and supports them in all areas of life that are affected by this complex and still unknown disease: health, psychosocial and social factors and work & income. For more information, go to: https://www.c-support.nu.
Who can take part?
The Long COVID Study is currently focusing on adolescents aged 16 and older and adults. Children under 16 years old will also be able to join soon. We are asking people who test positive for COVID-19 to sign up for the study within 7 days after the test result. People who tested negative or were not tested for COVID-19 can also sign up and take part in the control groups. Data on people who had COVID-19 and sign up later than 7 days after testing positive will be analysed separately from the other participants. This also applies to people who had COVID-19 and have already had persistent symptoms for some time when they sign up.
Want to join?
Sign up to participate in the study on longcovid.rivm.nl.