COVID’s effects on the body can vary considerably from individual to individual. For some people, the virus is a relatively mild respiratory infection causing symptoms similar to the flu — for others, it’s a much more serious, sometimes even fatal disease. Some survivors, sometimes called “long-haulers,” contend with long-term effects of the disease. In this COVID Questions forum, we’ll talk with medical specialists about how COVID affects the different systems of the body, what is currently understood about long-term effects of the disease, how doctors treat these long-term effects, and what areas still need more research.
This forum is presented by In This Together Cambria, Pitt-Johnstown, and The Tribune-Democrat. The moderator will be Chip Minemyer, editor of The Tribune-Democrat.
Join the event here: https://pitt.zoom.us/j/96156145654 ; alternatively, it will be streamed live on the ITTC Facebook Page.
COVID Questions presents:
Elizabeth Klings, MD is an Associate Professor of Medicine, Director of the Pulmonary Hypertension (PH) Center and the Center for Excellence in Sickle Cell Disease (SCD), caring for over 500 adult and pediatric patients, at Boston University School of Medicine/Boston Medical Center. She received her BA and MD degrees from New York University and completed her training in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine where she joined the faculty in 2000. Her research and clinical interests are in the pulmonary vascular complications of sickle cell disease and pulmonary hypertension. Additionally, she is an attending physician in the Medical Intensive Care Unit at Boston Medical Center. She is a member of the Medical and Research Advisory Council of the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America’s International Task Force that meets bi-weekly to update recommendations for patients with sickle cell disease infected with COVID-19 and is considered to be a national expert on this topic.
Devanshu Verma, MD is dually board certified in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology, having graduated from the internal medicine residency program at Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center in Johnstown, PA followed by rheumatology fellowship training at Drexel University/Hahnemann Hospital and University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA. He is currently working as an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Rheumatology Division at West Virginia University in Morgantown, WV and serving as the Associate Program Director of the rheumatology fellowship. He was a recipient of the Exemplar of Professionalism Award by the American College of Physicians Pennsylvania Chapter in 2016, served as Chief Resident during his residency training, and volunteered at the local Johnstown Free Clinic.