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Long COVID is a double curse in low-income nations — here’s why

Not only is the prevalence of the condition poorly understood, but it’s also often ignored by physicians and the wider public.
  1. Heidi Ledford
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People walk past a graffiti amidst the spread of COVID-19 in Rio de Janeiro. The graffiti reads: "Coronavirus, together we will win that battle".

It is estimated that four million people in Brazil have long COVID. Credit: Pilar Olivares/Reuters

Letícia Soares stepped off the plane in Brazil feeling traumatized and vulnerable. It was 2021 and she was returning home from Canada, where the final year of her postdoc in disease ecology had been marred by long COVID. The condition left her with searing migraines, intense fatigue, body aches and a variety of other ailments that came and went unpredictably, but never improved. Soares decided to return home where she felt she would have better access to medical support if she were disabled and unemployed.

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Nature 625, 20-22 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-04088-x

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