People suffering from long Covid are being warned of the dangers of travelling abroad to private clinics for unproven “blood washing” treatments.
The Department of Health and Social Care has advised patients to take part only in regulated clinical trials following an investigation by the British Medical Journal (BMJ) and ITV News found that people are jetting to private clinics in Cyprus, Germany and Switzerland for blood filtering treatment and anti-clotting therapy.
There are risks that come with having apheresis, the blood filtering, and other treatments while there is no conclusive evidence of the benefits for long Covid sufferers, say experts. Beverley Hunt, medical director of the charity Thrombosis UK, said: “I am worried these patients have been offered therapies which have not been assessed by modern scientific methods – well-designed clinical trials. In this situation, the treatment may or may not benefit them but, worryingly, also has the risk of harm.”
