

Each patient’s eligibility to receive a diagnostic COVID-19 PCR test will be determined by a physician depending on each patient’s responses to medical screening questions. The diagnostic PCR test should not be used for travel testing. No-cost-to-patient diagnostic COVID-19 PCR test for eligible insured, uninsured, and undocumented patients. See all our coverage of the coronavirus pandemicįor Seltzer, clinics should offer comprehensive care from doctors in a variety of specialties who are familiar with the intense fatigue, pain, breathing problems and brain fog that can occur with postviral conditions.Appointment Needed: Recommended but not required “Several studies have now shown that approximately half of people with long COVID meet the diagnostic criteria for ME/CFS.” However, there are very few of these specialists due to limited funding and attention before long COVID became the tidal wave that it is today. The doctors most qualified to treat long COVID are those with expertise in ME/CFS and other postviral conditions that overlap with long COVID, Seltzer says.

Seltzer is director of scientific and medical outreach at #MEAction, an ME/CFS advocacy group that also works with long COVID patients. “It would be great if we could get medical schools to begin teaching these diseases,” says Jaime Seltzer, referring to long COVID and myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, or ME/CFS. But most RECOVER sites are clustered in urban areas: Out of 53 locations serving adult patients, six are in the city of Boston. Many of the RECOVER sites, funded by the National Institutes of Health to study long COVID, also treat adults with long COVID. By the time she got home, she “blacked out from extreme fatigue.” Bishof recently had to drive herself to an appointment that took almost two hours of travel each way, she says. Traveling to a faraway clinic can be hard on long COVID patients, particularly those with no partner or caregivers to help with transportation and coordinate overnight stays. North Dakota and Wyoming each have just one long COVID clinic. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In mid-September, about 1 in 5 adults in Idaho, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Wyoming who had had COVID-19 reported experiencing long COVID, defined as symptoms lasting 3 months or more for a survey conducted by the U.S. The two maps here, noting long COVID clinic locations and long COVID prevalence by state, reveal a mismatch between need and availability of relevant medical care. clinics focus on children with long COVID. California’s 29 clinics are concentrated in the Bay Area, Los Angeles and San Diego. Out of 37 clinics in New York state, all but three are in the New York City metropolitan area. It’s no surprise that people living in big cities have the most clinics to choose from. Overall, almost half of the clinics included on this map are physical therapy or rehabilitation centers.

Yet, in some states - Alaska, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Wyoming - rehabilitation centers are patients’ only option. But people with long COVID should be wary of rehab or physical therapy practices that encourage exercise, which can lead to “crashes” rather than recovery, says Karyn Bishof, a long COVID patient and founder of the COVID-19 Longhauler Advocacy Project. Physical therapy or rehabilitation-focused care can often help COVID-19 patients facing lingering symptoms or weakness after a long hospital stay.
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Science News used their list plus two other patient-compiled lists, and added the 53 NIH RECOVER research sites that are studying long COVID in adults, confirming that all were active as of early October. The list, which the group did not vet for quality, ranges from rehabilitation or physical therapy practices to comprehensive medical centers with multiple specialists working together. The COVID-19 Longhauler Advocacy Project, a patient support group, compiled a crowdsourced list of more than 400 long COVID clinics. Long COVID clinics have been popping up, but their accessibility and the kind of care they offer vary wildly. For the millions of people in the United States with long COVID, getting help comes down to where they live.
