- Two recent studies have added more evidence that the diabetes drug metformin can reduce the risk of Long COVID. One observational study using healthcare records found that metformin and a type of diabetes drug called SGLT2 inhibitors significantly lowered the risk of Long COVID in people who were taking them for type 2 diabetes during acute COVID-19 cases. A separate study, now accepted in Clinical Infectious Diseases, found that people who took the drug were about half as likely to develop clinician-diagnosed Long COVID as those who didn’t. This finding was a secondary endpoint from the trial, meaning it was not the metric researchers chose to measure success; the trial did not find a significant difference in its primary endpoint. Read more of our reporting on metformin.
- Long COVID disproportionately impacts Indigenous people in California, according to a recent preprint. The study used data from a state health survey that interviews over 20,000 people each year. 40% of Indigenous people in the survey said that they had experienced Long COVID, compared to 30% of people who were not Indigenous. “Our findings indicate that [Indigenous] respondents experienced higher rates of [SARS-CoV-2] infection, Long COVID symptoms, and economic hardship,” the authors concluded.Â
- A recent article in De Gruyter Brill argues that a 2020 diagnostic consensus (Consensus-2) for mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), which can be triggered or exacerbated by COVID-19, has enabled diagnosis and improved treatment of MCAS in people with the syndrome. The authors stated that the less strict consensus did not lead to an overdiagnosis of MCAS, and that “underdiagnosis remains a frequent, significant problem.” Consensus-2 consists of a more symptom-based approach with some testing, compared to specific tryptase levels and other markers of Consensus-1. “MCAS research remains in early stages, hampered by many factors including limited awareness of the disease,” the authors wrote.
