Koralnik Leads Team Researching Neurologic Manifestations of Long COVID

June 2025

At the Robert J. Havey, MD Institute for Global Health, the Program for Global Neurology works to improve global neurologic health and provide neurological care, particularly in low-income and middle-income countries. Since the onset of COVID-19, the team has maintained a goal to analyze long COVID manifestations.  

The project, “A systematic analysis of neurologic manifestations of Long COVID in Nigeria,” compares long COVID symptoms to determine differences in patients previously hospitalized for severe COVID-19 pneumonia compared to those who had a mild initial COVID-19 presentation (short-lived fever and cough) and were able to stay home.  

With work focused in Nigeria and India, the team is comprised of members from Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) in Nigeria and the National Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) and Research in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. The LUTH team includes Njideka Okubadejo, MBChB, FMCP, Iorhen Akase, MBBS, FWACP, MSc, and their university team in Nigeria. The NIMS team includes Anurag Kumar Singh, MD, and institute colleagues.

Leading the team is principal investigator Igor Koralnik, MD, chief of Neuro-Infectious Disease and Global Neurology in the Department of Neurology and director of the Program for Global Neurology, a part of the Robert J. Havey, MD Institute for Global Health. 

Through the Havey Institute for Global Health Global Health Project Award, "Development of a Neuro-COVID-19 Program in Nigeria," the team first performed a systematic analysis of the Neurologic manifestations of long COVID in Nigeria. The work led to a publication, and now the researchers are characterizing the neuropsychiatric manifestations of long COVID in Rajasthan, India with the team at NIMS. 

These cutting-edge studies highlight for the first time the previously unrecognized incidence of neurologic manifestations of long COVID in populations in Nigeria and India and the need for improved screening and diagnosis, as well as development of interventions, as seen in their work in Colombia with the project, “Outcomes of cognitive rehabilitation in Long COVID patients with cognitive dysfunction in Colombia.” 

The continued collection of data from Nigeria, India, Colombia and the United States allows researchers to perform a global comparison of the neurologic manifestation of long COVID in four distinct geographical locations, which creates a widespread dataset for deeper research. 

This project is supported by the Havey Institute for Global Health Global Health Project Awards.

Igor Koralnik, MD, is a member of the Robert J. Havey, MD Institute for Global Health, Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (NUCATS) and Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center. 

To learn more about the Program for Global Neurology, visit their website. 

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