Long COVID , defined as symptoms persisting ninety days or more after SARS-CoV-2 infection, has been documented globally, but the experience of Long COVID in urban Black and Hispanic communities has been substantially less studied than its course in better-resourced populations. Our work addresses that gap.

Beyond COVID specifically, the program studies post-acute infection syndromes more broadly. The recognition that infections produce long-tail consequences for some patients didn't begin with COVID, and will not end with it. The infrastructure CTH has built to study Long COVID extends to other post-acute syndromes that have been similarly underrecognized.

The program's central research effort is a citywide community-based epidemiological study conducted to document the prevalence, symptom profiles, and disparate burden of Long COVID in Houston. The study was designed using community-based recruitment, structured epidemiological instrumentation, and culturally grounded engagement methods, and represents CTH's largest community-based epidemiological study to date.

Findings are being disseminated through a series examining prevalence, symptom clustering, demographic disparities in Long COVID burden, healthcare access, and other dimensions of the post-acute experience that have been underrepresented in the existing evidence base. The survey methodology and infrastructure also serve as the foundation for follow-on epidemiological work. including post-acute infection syndromes beyond COVID and longitudinal extensions of the cohort.

The program aligns with national post-acute infection initiatives, including the NIH RECOVER-TLC effort, and positions CTH to contribute Houston-specific evidence to federal and multi-site research conversations on Long COVID and related conditions..

Public health systems were slow to recognize Long COVID, and slower still to recognize its uneven burden across populations. The communities CTH partners with experienced acute COVID disproportionately, and they continue to live with its consequences in ways that have not been adequately documented or addressed. This program builds the evidence those communities need and the evidence the broader scientific and clinical community has been missing.