Throat Inflammation in ALL long Covid cases!

Most unusual and unexpected finding here.

Long Covid management in Japan includes treatment of epipharyngitis as the symptoms parallel that of MECFS and persistent throat inflammation.

We found that all long COVID patients had residual inflammation in the epipharynx, an important site of coronavirus replication, and some long COVID symptoms are similar to those associated with chronic epipharyngitis.

Figure 3. Effect of epipharyngeal abrasive therapy (EAT) for the treatment of chronic epipharyngitis. (a) Trans-nasal endoscopic photographs of the epipharynx in a patient. Left panel shows the epipharynx pre-EAT treatment (before). Right panel shows the epipharynx following one month of treatment with EAT (after). The white arrow indicates cobblestone-like granular changes. The inflammation grade = (X) the score of inflammation due to endoscopic characteristic + (Y) the score of impure bleeding. (b) Changes in inflammation grade due to EAT. All patients were treated with EAT once a week. The upper panel shows the inflammation grade at the first visit. The lower panel shows the inflammation grade following one month of treatment with EAT. The inflammation grade of chronic epipharyngitis was scored on a scale of 0–6 (0: absent, 1–2: mild inflammation, 3–4: moderate inflammation, 5–6: severe inflammation).

Imai, Kazuaki, et al. "Epipharyngeal Abrasive Therapy (EAT) Has Potential as a Novel Method for Long COVID Treatment." Viruses 14.5 (2022): 907.

Treatment protocol:

Epipharyngeal abrasive therapy (EAT) is a treatment for chronic epipharyngitis in Japan that involves applying zinc chloride as an anti-inflammatory agent to the epipharyngeal mucosa.

Outcomes:

EAT reduced inflammation in the epipharynx and significantly improved the intensity of fatigue, headache, and attention disorder, which may be related to myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). These results suggest that EAT has potential as a novel method for long COVID treatment.