About 60,000 Britons are believed to have had symptoms long after they were infected with covid-19, according to the British government.

The United Kingdom is investing millions in research initiatives, care clinics and services to help the long-term sick.  

That's progress since last spring, according to Paul Garner, professor of infectious diseases at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.  

- When people went to their GPs, they were sent home and told that they were imagining.

The doctors said they were just worried and that it was anxiety, says Paul Garner.  

Four types of symptoms  

Paul Garner himself has been ill with long-term symptoms for over six months and is one of several influential people who raised and heard the issue.  

Primary care gave recommendations on how GPs should treat long-term covid already in May.

Around the same time, a counseling site for patients was started.

And now the British Government's Institute for Health Research has released a new report identifying four forms of long-term covid. 

It includes recovery from intensive care, physical exhaustion and lingering organ damage to the lungs or loss of smell and taste.

A variant is called wandering symptoms because they move through the body. 

- Doctors in the UK recognize long-term covid now.

Some cases involve tissue damage and other immune reactions, says Paul Garner. 

Chronic fatigue 

A common symptom among the long-term sick is physical exhaustion and fatigue.

The Swedish singing teacher Maria Rivington says that she had such symptoms for four months. 

- In recent months, a pattern has developed.

I usually have 14 days with daily migraines which is then followed by 14 days with fever, she says. 

But she is happy with how she has been treated by healthcare in the UK.   

- I think they have dealt very well with their ignorance and with accepting that they can take the patient's symptoms exactly for what they are and treat the symptoms.

Then, over time, they learn how the virus develops, says Maria Rivington.

See more in Vetenskapens Värld on Monday.