The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has published updates on its Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) initiative, focusing on patients and those with affected family or community members who have joined researchers, clinicians, and experts in their efforts to unlock the mysteries of Long COVID. NIH launched RECOVER in 2021 as an initiative that seeks to understand, prevent, and treat long-term health effects related to COVID-19.

A recent NIH Director’s Blog notes how patients and those with affected family or friends are working with experts to better understand what causes long COVID, identify who is most at risk, and determine how to prevent and treat it.

People diagnosed with COVID-19 may experience related symptoms that can last weeks, months, or even years after infection, according to the CDC. Symptoms may go away or come back again. Long-term symptoms affiliated with COVID may be known as post-COVID conditions, long COVID, long-haul COVID, post-acute COVID, long-term effects of COVID, or chronic COVID.

RECOVER gets information through the National Community Engagement Group (NCEG), comprised of people living with long COVID and those representing others living with the condition, and helps researchers understand how and why SARS-CoV-2 impacts people in different ways.

Recent NIH-supported studies published on RECOVER show variations in symptoms and diagnostic experiences among different racial and ethnic groups.

Access more news and research on the RECOVER website.

NIST Focuses on Waste Water Surveillance

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is partnering with the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (DHS/S&T) to develop documentary standards and reference materials to support an enduring capability in wastewater surveillance.

Wastewater surveillance is used to monitor biological and chemical contaminants on a community level, which was demonstrated through its use as a public health tool during the COVID-19 pandemic. NIST reports that SARS-CoV-2 viral loads in wastewater can be used to track trends in community viral levels and can be an early indicator of clinical infections.

NIST will be working with stakeholders to identify and develop measurement-based solutions and standards to increase confidence and comparability in wastewater surveillance results for biological targets. In addition to the guidance-based documentary standard on wastewater surveillance, ongoing activities include the development of a research-grade test material for 17 antibiotic resistance gene targets to support expanded surveillance efforts.

Access NIST’s Waste Water Surveillance project page for more information or to get involved with the working group.