Expensive 'blood-washing' treatments unlikely to cure long Covid, experts warn 🔎 Explained by BawdenTom
Frustrated by lingering symptoms such as fatigue and shortness of breath and the lack of proven cures, Britons suffering fromare increasingly travelling to private clinics in Cyprus, Germany, and Switzerland to get expensive “blood washing” treatments.
Mark Toshner, an expert in translational respiratory medicine at the University of Cambridge, said blood washing can be effective for some conditions such as leukaemia, where the patient can have white cells removed and even receive white cells collected from a healthy donor. Shamil Haroon, clinical lecturer in primary care at the the University of Birmingham and a researcher on the Therapies for Long Covid in Non-hospitalised Patients trial, warned desperation could leave patients financially ruined by accessing treatments with no evidence of success.“It’s unsurprising that people who were previously highly functioning, who are now debilitated, can’t work, and can’t financially support themselves, would seek treatments elsewhere.
Beverley Hunt, medical director of the charity Thrombosis UK, said: “I am worried these patients have been offered therapies which have not been assessed by modern scientific methods: well designed clinical trials. He pointed out that the probability of significant problems was broadly similarly to the risk associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine, noting the very small risk of around 1 in 10,000-100,000, which nonetheless generated a lot some anxiety as it was rolled out.
Finally, apheresis has been linked to “citrate reaction”, a ‘neuromuscular’ hyperactivity related to reduced ionised calcium levels. Signs and symptoms include numbness or tingling of lips or fingers, feelings of vibrations, metallic taste, chills, shivering, light-headedness, feeling of tightness, muscle twitching, rapid or slow pulse and/or shortness of breath.
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