The rehabilitation system suffered greatly during the COVID-19 pandemic, the chief freelance specialist in medical rehabilitation of the Russian Ministry of Health, Professor Galina Ivanova, told Izvestia in an interview.
According to her, the rehabilitation departments were the first to be converted into infectious diseases.
“There are subjects in Russia that have completely reoriented all their rehabilitation services to treating covid. The departments located in the sanatoriums were simply closed. Today in Russia, as well as in the whole world, from 5% to 30% of rehabilitation departments function, “Galina Ivanova emphasized.
But the reverse process has already begun – the time has come to deal with the consequences of the disease. International recommendations indicate that it is necessary to restore only the respiratory function for at least twelve weeks, Galina Ivanova noted. Developing lung fibrosis or connective tissue damage can make people feel unwell months after returning to normal. She herself also suffered from a coronavirus infection and stopped feeling its effects in the body only after six months.
Read more in an exclusive interview with Izvestia:
“It is harder for men to carry COVID-19”