LCD
The Long COVID Deutschland (LCD) initiative represents the interests of those affected by long COVID throughout the nation, and is actively involved in education, care and research.
LCD was founded in May 2020 as an online self-help group for COVID-19 sufferers who continued to suffer from persistent complaints after the acute phase of the disease. The LCD online self-help group now enables more than 10,000 affected persons and relatives to compare notes with each other.
This online self-help group developed into the health policy initiative LCD, which campaigns for more targeted and improved treatment for long COVID based on personal experience of the disease. It is also important for LCD to actively help improve the overall treatment situation in Germany. In this voluntary work, LCD combines lived experience of illness with medical and scientific expertise. Many of the members of the LCD team have professional backgrounds in the fields of medicine, nursing or research.
The LCD is a co-author of medical guidelines on COVID-19 and long COVID, and is part of the patient representation in Netzwerk Universitätsmedizin (NUM). LCD also advises university hospitals, research institutes and treatment networks in various federal states on selected long COVID projects. LCD is a member of the steering committees of Nationale Klinischen Studiengruppe (NKSG) and the Therapeutic Intervention Platform in the National Pandemic Cohort Network (NAPKON-TIP). At the federal and state government levels, LCD represents the interests of those affected in various formats and advocates, among other things, for financial support for research projects, more information and better care.
The initiative also provides the latest information about LCD's work via social media profiles on X (https://twitter.com/LongDeutschland) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/longcoviddeutschland).
Further information
Guideline | Together with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Myalgische Enzephalomyelitis / Chronisches Fatigue-Syndrom (ME/CFS) (German society for myalgic encephalomyelitis / chronic fatigue syndrome), LCD has published a guideline for projects on treatment for and research into ME/CFS and post-COVID syndrome.
https://longcoviddeutschland.org/leitfaden
Educational videos | LCD and Deutsche Gesellschaft für ME/CFS use targeted videos to explain the symptoms of the disease and how to better deal with the complaints.