Cork experts come together for webinar highlighting impacts of Long Covid on patients  

CORK experts will come together as part of a webinar highlighting the impact of Long Covid and the latest research in the area.

APC Microbiome Ireland, a world-leading SFI Research Centre at University College Cork (UCC) and Teagasc will host a webinar to engage meaningfully with the Long Covid community in Ireland with the intention of harnessing the patient experience to help inform clinical pathways and research priorities.

Evidence is showing that the effects of Long Covid can leave people struggling with perplexing and debilitating symptoms, such as chronic fatigue, joint pain and memory loss, but the true impact of this disease is only being investigated.

RTÉ’s Philip Boucher Hayes will moderate a panel of experts on the webinar ‘Tackling Long Covid Together’ to inform the general public of recent developments in clinical and research settings as well as in the Long COVID support community.

Prof Mary Horgan, president of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (RCPI) and member of the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) for Covid-19 will chair the event.

APC Director Prof Paul Ross will open the webinar with an explanation of the relevance of the microbiome in Long Covid and overall health. 

The expert panel will include APC Principal Investigator and UCC Prof of Immunology Liam O’Mahony and Dr Corinna Sadlier, Consultant in Infectious Diseases at Cork University Hospital.

Dr Nuala O’Connor, Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) lead for Covid-19 and Ms Tanja Buwalda, Long Covid sufferer and representative of ‘Long Covid Support Ireland’ will also be on the panel.

A multidisciplinary team of researchers from UCC lead by Prof Liam O’Mahony, Dr Corinna Sadlier and Ms Tanja Buwalda will also launch an online questionnaire in the coming weeks to investigate Long Covid in the Irish population.

Prof Liam O’Mahony said that their research at APC Microbiome Ireland SFI Research Centre is showing that SARS-CoV-2 infection not only impacts the lungs, but also influences other body systems such as the digestive system, cardiovascular system, nervous system and immune system.

“Understanding the basic mechanisms for how viral infection results in these wide range of detrimental effects will be key to us understanding the biology behind Long Covid, and will hopefully provide us new insights for therapy and future prevention," he said.

The webinar takes place at 6 pm, Tuesday 28 September.

To register, visit https://conference.ucc.ie/tackling-long-covid-together/long-covid/Site/Register