Long COVID sufferers pay $70,000 for unproven ‘bloodwashing’ treatment

London: British long COVID sufferers are paying more than £40,000 ($70,000) to travel overseas and have their blood “washed”, despite no evidence the practice is helpful.

Doctors have warned people against spending “life-changing sums” on invasive and unproven treatments.

Desperate sufferers from long COVID have sought the “bloodwashing” treatment even though there is no evidence of its effectiveness.Credit:James Davies

According to the Office for National Statistics, there are more than 2 million people in Britain who are still reporting symptoms such as fatigue, memory problems and muscle weakness, four months after an infection.

The BMJ and ITN News found that thousands of patients are travelling to private clinics in Cyprus, Germany and Switzerland for apheresis, a blood filtering treatment normally used for patients with lipid disorders who have not responded to drugs.

Some research has suggested that “microclots” present in the plasma of people with long COVID could be responsible for symptoms.

Shamil Haroon, clinical lecturer in primary care at the University of Birmingham and a researcher on the therapies for long COVID in non-hospitalised patients trial, said that such experimental treatment should only be done in the context of a clinical trial.

“It’s unsurprising that people who were previously highly functioning, who are now debilitated, can’t work, can’t financially support themselves, would seek treatments elsewhere,” he says. “It’s a rational [response]. But people could go bankrupt accessing these treatments, for which there is limited to no evidence of effectiveness.”

Apheresis involves needles being put into each arm and the blood is passed over a filter, separating the red blood cells from the plasma. The plasma is filtered before being recombined with the red blood cells and returned to the body via a different vein.

Chris Witham, a 45-year-old businessman from Bournemouth who spent around £7000 on apheresis treatment in Germany last year, said he had no improvement in symptoms.

COVID restrictions could be reintroduced in Britain if the rising number of cases has an impact on the health system, a minister has said.

Syed Kamall, the health minister, said that if a point is reached at which the current increase in hospital admissions “is affecting the backlog”, then “clearly measures may well have to be introduced”.

The British government is considering reintroducing measures to reduce the spread of COVID.Credit:Bloomberg

“Current data does not point to cases becoming more severe,” he said in the House of Lords on Monday (British time).

“We are always ready to stand up measures should the case rates rise so much that our health system was under pressure, but also what we have managed to do is break the link between infections and hospitalisations, and hospitalisations and death.

“If that gets out of control then of course we will stand up the measures that we have previously.”

His comments come after some hospitals reintroduced mask-wearing for patients, staff and visitors amid the rising cases.

Public health organisations in Sussex, Norfolk and Norwich and the Midlands said the increase in cases in their communities necessitated a return to mask-wearing.

The number of people in hospital in England who have tested positive for COVID has climbed to its highest level for nearly three months. However, there are signs the rate of increase may be slowing.

A total of 13,336 patients were in hospital as of 8am on July 11, NHS England figures show. The last time the figure was that high was in late April, and it is close to the peak of 16,600 reached during the previous wave of infections in the spring.

However, while patient numbers are up week-on-week by 25 per cent, the rate of increase has slowed in recent days after running at 39 per cent at the start of the month. It is too soon to say whether the slowdown is the start of a trend.

Dr Mary Ramsay, the director of clinical programmes at the UK Health Security Agency, said on Monday that while hospital admissions of people testing positive are rising in all age groups, the largest increases are in those aged 75 and above.

“There is likely to be a substantial amount of waning immunity in older people who have not taken up the booster on schedule, so we can expect these rises to continue over the coming weeks and throughout July,” she added.

All people aged 75 and over in the UK have been offered a “spring booster”, available at least three months after their most recent jab, to ensure that they continue to receive the maximum protection.

But about one in six over-75s has not received any doses of vaccine in the past six months, putting them more at risk of severe disease.

The Telegraph, London

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