The Long Covid abyss in Brazil; Is this another concern for an overwhelmed healthcare system?

Abstract

Long Covid is an ongoing health hazard to many patients who had an original Covid-19 diagnosis. Whilst there has been much debate about the phenotypic nature of the disease, the implications of these among differing populations is yet to be comprehensively reviewed. This is particularly important for low-to-middle-income countries such as Brazil, that have limited resources and infrastructure within their healthcare systems to manage patients long-term that have had Covid-19 and Long covid. Brazil have had to stare at the Covid abyss with over-crowding of their intensive care units that left their healthcare system in chaos. The ongoing long-Covid case numbers therefore are exacerbating an ongoing issue for patients, policy makers and healthcare professionals. In line with this, and the population density of Brazil, we have explored the prevalence of long-Covid in one of the largest municipalities in northeast Brazil to report active patient and clinical reported outcomes that would enable a better understanding of the next steps require to curb these issues to a manageable situation. Methods: We designed a two-step approach to demonstrate the wider implications of long-covid using a commentary and a retrospective, cross-sectional study using realworld data. Findings: In this commentary we highlight the current issues and potential barriers Brazil faces. We will follow this up with a retrospective, cross-sectional study using real world data to report on the prevalence of long covid within 1,600 patients.