Review of the 2nd Dutch Long COVID Day

On March 21, Virology Education organized the second Dutch Long COVID day in collaboration with Stichting Long COVID and C-support. A day with inspiring presentations and workshops by scientists, doctors and other professionals. Knowledge was exchanged, new insights shared and there was plenty of opportunity to meet each other.

Alfons Olde Loohuis, medical advisor of C-support opened the day with a presentation on the similarities between Post-COVID, Q fever and other PAIS and the impact of these conditions on the quality of life of patients. This was followed by presentations on PEM by Dr. Brent Appelman, POTS by Dr. Melvin Lafeber and attention was paid to children with Long COVID. An update on the centers of expertise was also given. Various studies were reviewed, such as the effect of dysbiosis on disruption of the immune system, brain inflammation with PET, effect of vaccination on prevention of Long COVID, biomarkers for Long COVID and an update of biomedical research from PCNN. In the afternoon there were abstract presentations and various interactive workshops.

Main conclusions

The chairmen of the day, Dr. Roel Coutinho and Dr. Annemarie Wensing, formulated the five most important conclusions of the day:

1. Only a limited number of patients can be admitted to the recently opened centers of expertise.
2. The aim of the centres of expertise is to create a guideline that will ensure that patients in primary and secondary care can receive the same care.
3. Despite much research, there are no biomarkers yet, the diagnosis is based on the anamnesis.
4. There are a significant number of well-controlled studies into the effect of known drugs developed for other conditions, but there are no proven effective treatments yet.
5. Biomedical research into Long Covid is in full swing worldwide, with thousands of scientific publications published on the subject in the past year.

Watch presentations again

462 (healthcare) professionals and patients attended the day physically or online. If you were unable to attend, you now have the opportunity to watch various presentations*. Professionals can watch the presentations via the Virology Education website (with login), patients and other interested parties can watch the presentations without logging in.

Curious about the latest developments in the field of biomarkers? Then the presentation by Dr. Johan van Weyenbergh is certainly interesting. Curious about what you can offer as a GP? Then watch the workshop by Dr. Merel Hellemons and Jojanneke Kant or be informed by the workshop by sports physician Dr. Kasper Janssen. You can also watch the presentations of the abstract presenters, in which topics are discussed such as: the value of the case manager, inflammation in the brain after SARS-CoV-2, the results of the Delphi study on the opportunities and barriers in post-COVID care and much more.

*Not all speakers have given permission for their presentations to be recorded and/or distributed.

An abstract collection has been compiled from the oral and poster presentations, which you can view below.

On Friday March 20, 2026, the 3rd Dutch Long COVID day will be organized. Put the date in your agenda!