DZG Post-COVID Syndrome Symposium 31.10.2022

The health consequences that persist beyond the acute stage of infection with Covid-19, termed post-Covid-19 syndrome, are a global health challenge. Therefore, on October 31, 2022, a joint symposium of German centers (DZHK, DZD, DZL, DZIF, and DZNE) for health research, organized by the DZHK partner site RheinMain, was held at Deutsche Bank Park Frankfurt am Main.

Cardiologist, neurologist, diabetes researcher and virologist from all over Germany met and discussed to address the epidemiology, pathophysiology and potential mechanisms and therapies as well as therapeutics of post-infection sequelae after COVID-19.

In the poster session ten researchers presented their projects and Dr Christina Poetheko-Müller of Robert Koch-Institut received this symposium’s poster award for her poster on “Prevalence and determinants of Long COVID and Post-COVID-19 condition in Germany”.

You can find an in-depth summary of the presented topics in this article by Philipp Graetzel (Clinician and scientific journalist) and an interview with Prof. Zeiher on the symposium here.

https://www.doccheck.com/de/detail/articles/40695-post-covid-kaum-einer-hat-interesse-an-studien

https://www.rheinmaintv.de/sendungen/beitrag-video/post-covid-symposium/vom-31.10.2022/

Citizens’ lecture

To give interested citizens an insight into the current research results and the opportunity to ask questions we organized a public event after the day event. The central question about “how to get fit and active after COVID-19 infection?” was discussed by the following experts on the podium:

• Dr. Winfried Banzer, Scientific Director of the Eintracht Frankfurt Medical Department and team physician
• Dr. Martin Hall, Director of Preventive Sports Medicine and Sports Cardiology at the Technical University of Munich
• Dr. Andreas Zeiher, Professor of Internal Medicine/Cardiology, Emeritus Professor, Spokesperson for Rhein Main, German Center for Cardiovascular Research
• Dr. Anneke Steinmetz, Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Greifswald, Head of the Post-Covid Outpatient Clinic

About 60 interested citizens had gathered, including many with their own PCS background, and were informed informally about the current state of research and received excellent information on how to increase performance again and could ask individual questions of the experts.