The University of Manitoba is launching a new survey on Tuesday to figure out the ins and outs of long COVID.
According to Dr. Alan Katz of the Max Rady College, recent research efforts have inconsistent variables, leading to huge differences in information regarding long COVID.
He says current research has yet to home in on any specifics for who’s more likely to develop long-term symptoms.
“Some research says it’s about 10 per cent. Other research is as high as 50 or 60 per cent. The more recent research says maybe 20, 25 per cent of people that have COVID got long COVID, and that’s one of the questions that I’m trying to answer.”
He says Manitoba has a unique opportunity to learn more.
“We have data at the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy of all contacts with the health-care system, and that means we could do what we call population-based studies. We can really look at everybody, but because there is no single diagnostic code in that information that says this person had long COVID, we are now struggling to determine, well, who really has long COVID.”
The survey takes roughly five to 10 minutes to complete and can be done anonymously.
Interested Manitobans can participate online.