For many, Covid is a thing of the past. Not for Priscilla. Like 2 million people in France, she suffers from long Covid. For 6 years, she has endured the terrible symptoms and complications of this chronic illness.
It is a long-term illness that we talk about too little. However, long Covid affects 4% of the French adult population according to estimates from Public Health France, or a little more than 2 million people. This complex pathology associated with disabling symptoms plunges patients into a tunnel of uncertainty. To find out more, we chose to give the floor to Priscilla, who has suffered from long Covid since 2020 and president of the Covid Long Solidarité association. She tells Journal des Femmes about her journey, from the first symptoms to medical wandering and the chronic after-effects with which she has no other choice but to live today.
It all started during the first wave of the Covid-19 epidemic, in March 2020. Priscilla contracted the virus with what she thought were moderate signs. “I had insidious symptoms at first: muscle pain, stomach aches, dizziness and a little shortness of breath” she remembers. But very quickly, her state of health worsened when her husband was urgently hospitalized for Guillain-Barré syndrome. “When I went to the hospital, I noticed that I was in tachycardia, short of breath and that I was having difficulty communicating with the doctors.” Despite a negative Covid test, a lung scan confirms lesions and a diagnosis of Covid-19. She is hospitalized at home with anticoagulant treatment: “There were times when I couldn’t breathe at all. Exhausted, I couldn’t eat.”
“My body was exhausted: I couldn’t even lift a bottle”
After three months, Priscilla believes she has recovered, despite a diagnosis of asthma and persistent pain. “I still wanted to go back to work. I was a night caregiver at home for patients with Charcot’s disease. But I no longer understood the medical care protocols. Everything was blurry.” In November 2020, his condition worsened suddenly. “I started telling my doctor that something was wrong, because I was suffering from severe loss of muscle strength, severe dizziness 24 hours a day and I couldn’t breathe through my nose anymore.” A situation she describes as “terrible for someone who already has respiratory problems”. One night, she lost sight in her left eye during treatment. “I put my patient’s life in danger. I understood that my body had changed, but I did not yet know that I was falling into a chronic phase of the disease.” The diagnosis of long Covid falls in June 2021. “It was an excruciating time because my body was exhausted. I couldn’t even lift a bottle.”
From there, severe complications followed. In 2022, he was diagnosed with Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MAS) and contracted chronic scurvy linked to extreme vitamin C deficiencies. “I no longer keep vitamins. I have been infused with vitamin C since 2025, five days a month.” In 2023, a new Covid infection causes myocarditis (inflammation of the muscle tissue of the heart) and acute pericarditis (inflammation of the pericardium of the heart). “Daily life is a lot of chest pain, burning… I have recurrent myocarditis pericarditis.” His medical protocol today consists of monoclonal antibodies, infusions, cardiac and asthma treatments and oxygen therapy. Since September 2025, she has also suffered from severe dysphonia (voice alteration): “Daily life is the house, enclosed in four walls… As I speak to you, the whole left side of my face is swollen, my eyes are half closed.”
His two children also suffer from long Covid
In 2020, Priscilla took care of her three children, including a two-year-old, in full confinement. “I felt like I was abandoning my children, I was no longer able to take care of them”. Unfortunately, the two youngest also developed long Covid. “These are children who are also slowed down by the disease. Today, thanks to my treatments, I am able to do certain things with them again.” His disability is recognized as significant by the MDPH (Departmental Center for Disabled People) with a disability rate of between 50 and 79%. Priscilla no longer works and her social life is reduced. “I am no longer able to go out, because of heart fatigue, no longer able to receive people, and I am afraid of being reinfected.”
Finding solidarity through illness
Fortunately, Priscilla had the instinct to seek help from other sufferers. “In 2021, I looked for support groups on social networks. I realized that there were many of us and that everyone was going through the same wandering as me.” She then founded the Covid Long Solidarité association. “We can support people in their medical care, in their administrative difficulties and sometimes financially.” The association recently obtained a legal victory before the Council of State for the application of the Covid law long before July 2026. “It’s always rewarding to say that we have served a purpose. We needed this solidarity in the face of illness, it’s important.” She calls for great vigilance regarding the risk of infection: “Each reinfection increases the risk of long Covid and lasting damage, particularly to the heart and other organs. Prevention remains essential: it is better to prevent so as not to have to cure.”
Thanks to Priscilla for her testimony. Comments collected on January 14, 2026.
