A researcher from South Africa may have pin-pointed what causes some people to have COVID-19 symptoms months, even years, after getting infected.
The team led by Resia Pretorius, research professor at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, made the discovery in her lab.
The study revealed there is significant micro-clot formation in the blood of both acute COVID-19 and long COVID patients.
In an op-ed Pretorius penned in The Guardian she writes, “with healthy physiology, clots may form (for instance when you cut yourself). However, the body breaks down the clots efficiently by a process called fibrinolysis.”
She calls the slow response to diagnosing and treating long COVID one of the pandemic's "biggest failures.”
According to the research, micro-clotting in the blood of long haulers can prevent oxygen from circulating throughout the body — which impairs body function and can cause symptoms consistent with what long haulers experience.
The research said traditional lab tests miss the molecules that would be red flags because they're essentially hidden in the micro-clots, and there's no general pathology test readily available to diagnose these patients.
Pretorius writes in her op-ed that there’s urgent need to invest in more research and clinical trials to better understand the link she found.
The research is already being applauded by Utahns, including Lisa O’Brien, who is nearing two years of experiencing COVID-19 symptoms.
“I still have days where I have to hang out in bed a bunch and rest,” O’Brien said.
O'Brien runs the Utah COVID-19 Long Haulers group that has 3,800 members on Facebook.
O’Brien said 5-10 new concerned people join her group every single day, adding, “and they're having shortness of breath and the racing heart and chest pain.”