{"id":2438,"date":"2022-11-13T14:45:17","date_gmt":"2022-11-13T14:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/ebn\/?p=2438"},"modified":"2022-11-13T14:54:01","modified_gmt":"2022-11-13T14:54:01","slug":"long-covid-what-can-we-learn-about-the-cause-and-management-from-me-cfs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/ebn\/2022\/11\/13\/long-covid-what-can-we-learn-about-the-cause-and-management-from-me-cfs\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Covid \u2013 What can we learn about the cause and management from ME\/CFS?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Dr Charles Shepherd<\/p>\n

Hon Medical Adviser, ME Association @meassociation<\/p>\n

Three years ago nobody had heard of Long Covid – the patient derived name for a variety of symptoms and continuing ill health that may affect around 10% of people who catch COVID-19 and which persists for three months or more.<\/p>\n

The numbers are\u00a0<\/strong>huge. Data from the Office of National Statistics<\/a> indicates that over 500,000 people with Long Covid here in the UK are still unwell two years after catching COVID-19. And while some are improving or recovering, over 300,000 have significant limitations to their day-to-day activities. \u00a0Long Covid is becoming a major cause of disability and absence from work<\/a>, especially in the health and social care sectors.<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, Long Covid now receives more media attention than the infection that triggered it\u00a0and vast amounts of money are being spent on trying to find the cause and an effective form of treatment.<\/p>\n

But do some of the answers lie with what we already know about myalgic encephalomyelitis\/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME\/CFS) – a condition that often follows a viral infection and has very similar demographics, symptoms and research findings relating to the possible causation to Long Covid?\u00a0\u00a0 I believe they do.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start off by going back to the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 when it soon became apparent that increasing numbers of people were not recovering from COVID-19.<\/p>\n

Some had been seriously ill in hospital with many in this group continuing to experience cardiovascular and respiratory symptoms.<\/p>\n

But there were lots of people developing Long Covid who had not been in hospital, not had a severe infection, and did not have any other health problems.<\/p>\n

Long Covid has an almost endless list of symptoms \u2013 partly reflecting the fact that COVID-19 can involve almost any organ or tissue in the body. Common symptoms that may relate to organ or tissue damage from the time of the acute infection include breathlessness, chest pains, palpitations, loss of taste or smell.<\/p>\n

But just as common are a cluster very disabling symptoms – cognitive dysfunction\/brain fog, dysautonomia (including orthostatic intolerance and postural orthostatic\u00a0tachycardia\u00a0syndrome), debilitating fatigue and post-extertional\u00a0malaise\/symptom exacerbation, and muscle pain \u2013 that are highly characteristic of other post-viral syndromes, ME\/CFS in particular.<\/p>\n

So a significant proportion of people with Long Covid are also meeting diagnostic criteria for ME\/CFS<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When it comes to the possible cause of Long Covid, several abnormalities have been identified<\/a> that are already documented in ME\/CFS:<\/p>\n