Marshall Creates ‘Long COVID’ Clinic

Marshall Health and Cabell Huntington Hospital (CHH) have set up a new clinic in Huntington to support patients who experience COVID-19 symptoms weeks and months later. The condition is often referred to as “long COVID.”

Marshall Health Pulmonologists Imran T. Khawaja, M.D., and Mohammed AlJasmi, M.D., are leading a multidisciplinary team of physical therapists, mental health professionals, neurologists and social workers to provide ongoing care and treatment for patients 18 or older who are experiencing long-term effects from a COVID-19 infection.

Patients with long COVID may experience persistent COVID-19 related symptoms for at least three months — or more than 30 days after hospitalization with COVID-19. As many as 25 percent of patients may suffer from one or more symptoms that persist nine months or longer after COVID-19, according to CDC datapublished in May.

Long COVID symptoms vary from patient to patient but may include shortness of breath, persistent pneumonia/fibrosis, fatigue, fever, gastrointestinal disorders, difficulty thinking or concentrating, difficulty sleeping, heart palpitations and/or joint pain.

“We are still learning about the effects of ‘long COVID,’ since it is a new syndrome,” said Khawaja, professor and chief of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine at the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine. “By bringing various specialists together, our clinicians work collaboratively to identify health problems in the early recovery phase and actively treat symptoms to facilitate improvement in function and reduce symptoms.”

Patients will be seen at the CHH Center for Lung Health, located at 1305 Elm Street in Huntington.

A referral from a primary care provider, physical therapist or pulmonary rehabilitation center is required for patients to be seen at the post-COVID clinic.

For more information, please contact the CHH Center for Lung Health at 304-399-2881 or visitmarshallhealth.org/longCOVID.