WABASH VALLEY, Ind. (WAWV/WTWO) – Some people who have had COVID-19 are experiencing long-term effects from the virus.

According to Scott Stine, Chief Medical Officer at Good Samaritan Hospital, ‘Long COVID’ is a wide range of new or ongoing health issues that people experience after first being infected with COVID-19. He said effects like brain fog and fatigue are common indicators of ‘Long Covid.’ These are conditions that happen after the acute phases of the virus.

However, he said many patients may have debility from the severity of the virus.

“Thankfully the number of people that truly meet the criteria for ‘Long Covid’ is relatively small,” Stine said. “The initial diagnostic challenge is establishing that they had the infection, the length of the acute phase of the infection, as well as when they started noticing their symptoms.”

Wabash Valley Resident Carla McLoone said she was first diagnosed with COVID-19 August of last year.

McLoone said while she didn’t have symptoms the first five days, conditions started to worsen shortly after.

“To say Covid has affected my entire life is an understatement,” McLoone said. “I was diagnosed with COVID Pneumonia and I was in the hospital for 21 days, I don’t remember 10 of those 21 days.”

After McLoone was released from the hospital she was on oxygen for 18 weeks and has had a long recovery.

“I now have to take medications on things that I didn’t have to take medications before and I suffer from a great deal of fatigue,” McLoone said.

Along with the fatigue, she suffers with prolonged muscle pain almost a year later.

“I’m exhausted all the time I work 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and most of the time after work I go home and take a nap before I can do anything else,” McLoone said.

Stine said typically doctors start to look at ‘Long Covid’ as a diagnostic possibility to two to three months after the initial illness.

“Fatigue is the major rate-limiting factor in getting better,” Stine said. “It’s important to stay in touch with your primary care provider and get evaluated to determine if there’s anything we can do to help.”

According to the CDC ongoing health problems due to ‘Long Covid can last week, months, or years.