United States: Recent data from the National Institutes of Health’s Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER)-Adult Initiative nonetheless reveal that approximately 4.5 percent of COVID-19 survivors met the prevalence threshold for myalgic encephalomyelitis/ chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), in contrast to less than 1 percent of matched controls.
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ME/CFS following either viral and or non-viral infections has profound fatigue for a minimum of 6 months and often includes cognitive impairment such as memory, confusion, dizziness, and muscle or joint pain.
That is, clients experience physical or mental travail – symptoms that are not relieved by rest, cidrap.umn.edu reported.
How was the study conducted?
RECOVER-Adult is an observation study done at 83 sites in 33 states, Puerto Rico and Washington DC, to investigate chronic ME/CFS and long COVID.
In total, 4.5 percent of all participants had ME/CFS post-infection, while only 0.6 percent of the control group did.
Out of all, Post-exertional malaise was the most frequently reported symptom in both acute-infected (15.9 percent) and post-acute–infected participants (29.1 percent); the second most common was positional dizziness (14.4 percent and 25 percent, respectively).
Each ME/CFS symptom was less severe in controls than in infected participants.
Long COVID was present in 88.7 percent of the participants with post-COVID ME/CFS.
ME/CFS-like symptoms were present in 39.8 percent of infected participants with at least one of the symptoms of ME/CFS, while 55.7 percent reported not having the symptoms.
1 in 20 COVID survivors may have condition characterized by extreme fatigue | CIDRAP https://t.co/jTrUiIMig8
— matiere* (@matiere) January 16, 2025
Of the participants who were uninfected, 16.1 percent reported having at least one ME/CFS symptom, and 83.3 percent reported having non-ME/CFS symptoms.
In comparison with the infected participants, who never met ME/CFS criteria, post-COVID ME/CFS was associated with being White, female, aged 46-65 years, and living in a rural area.
Thus, the number of ME/CFS participants designated as uninfected was actually too few, only nine, of which we were unable to obtain …finish this comparison with other uninfected diagnostic groups.
Patients with post-COVID ME/CFS scored higher for chronic pain syndrome or fibromyalgia, neuromuscular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, dementia or brain fog, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, dysautonomia or autonomic dysfunction, movement disorder, mental illness employment, and home oxygen therapy as compared to Covid uninfected patients.
According to lead author Suzanne Vernon, PhD, research director at the Bateman Horne Center, “This research underscores the urgency for healthcare providers to recognize post-COVID-19 ME/CFS,” cidrap.umn.edu reported.
“Early diagnosis and proper management can transform lives,” Vernon added.