Physiotherapy rehabilitation of the post COVID-19 patient

Abstract

On December 31, 2019, the WHO (World Health Organization) receives the report of a cluster of cases of pneumonia with unknown etiology in the city of Wuhan, capital of Hubei province and a month later, exactly on January 7, the Chinese authorities identify the etiological agent responsible for the onset of these mysterious pneumonias: it is the SARS-Cov-2, a virus belonging to the family of coronaviruses never identified before and responsible for a disease that shortly after will be named “COVID-19”. In the last period more and more physicians and researchers are talking about “Long Covid” or “Post Covid”, which occurs when a patient continues to manifest one or more symptoms had in the disease even months after the negativity. In the coronavirus emergency physiotherapy has had and continues to have a very important role in taking care of patients who, recovered from the disease, need an individualized path of recovery of respiratory and motor rehabilitation, to prevent complications of all kinds and, in general, improve the quality of life.