New research to investigate long COVID in Western Australia

The Department of Health is asking Western Australians to participate in a survey that will explore the impacts of long COVID.

Participants, who had been diagnosed with COVID previously and agreed to participate in future research, will be contacted by the Department via SMS.

Senior Medical Adviser for Communicable Disease Control Dr Paul Effler said the study would help shape what resources and future health care needs WA would require for Long COVID.

“WA’s high vaccination rate when we were hit by the Omicron variant means information about long COVID from other countries with lower vaccination rates, and which experienced different variant waves, is not likely to be applicable to us,” Dr Effler said.

“We’re encouraging anyone who receives the survey request to respond, as it will help us identify risk factors for developing long COVID and estimate the proportion of people in WA still experiencing symptoms after their initial illness.

“Even if you quickly recovered from your COVID illness and don’t have symptoms of long COVID now, we still want to hear from you.

“Comparing answers from people who developed long COVID to those who did not helps us gain a better understanding of the risk factors and potential causes.”

If you have any queries about the research project, please contact the Department of Health via email - COVID.Immunisation@health.wa.gov.au - and mark it to the attention of Principal Investigator, Professor Paul Effler.

(ENDS)

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