University of Utah Health study: COVID-19 linked to chronic fatigue illness

Lee Jin-man, Associated Press
A health worker walks outside of a COVID-19 testing center at the Incheon International Airport In Incheon, South Korea, on Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023.A new study being conducted in part by University of Utah Health shows COVID-19 infection is associated with a nearly eightfold increase in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome.
Senior author of the study, Dr. Rachel Hess, said the finding is huge and may finally help researchers discover the cause and treatment for those suffering with the disabling condition.
“Now we have the opportunity to understand the long-term consequences,” Hess said. “A lot of our interest is to understand what long COVID is and how it’s related to ME/CFS. As we were looking at everything, it was hard not to think, ‘Wow, this long COVID looks a lot like ME/CFS.”
Hess, who is also associate vice president for research in health sciences at U of U Health, said the study provides the first substantive estimate of the incidence of post-viral ME/CFS.
“The study is ongoing and we hope to keep it going as long as we can,” Hess said. “The more we learn, the more we can figure out how to help people who are suffering with these symptoms, which are sometimes very debilitating and long-lasting. There have been people who have said they had a mild cough three weeks ago and now they can’t get out of bed.”
ME/CFS is a disorder that causes a number of symptoms, including extreme exhaustion lasting six months or longer, problems with concentration, extreme exhaustion after exercise, dizziness, muscle or joint pain, unrefreshing sleep, headache, sore throat, tender lymph nodes in the neck or armpits and sensitivity to light, sound, smells, food and medicines. Hess said the cause is still unknown, but there are theories. Some people develop it after having a viral or bacterial infection or physical or emotional trauma. Genetics are also thought to maybe play a role.
“It typically affects more women than men and some estimates show some people wait almost six years before receiving a diagnosis,” Hess said. “Long COVID and ME/CFS are different, but we think they’re related and that’s one of the things we want to learn more about.”
Hess said the study involves 13,000 people across the country — some who had COVID and others who didn’t.
Some of the key findings show new cases of ME/CFS are 15 times higher than pre-pandemic levels. In addition, nearly 90% of post-COVID-19 ME/CFS participants were also identified as the most symptomatic long-COVID patients.
The syndrome also occurred in 4.5% of infected RECOVER participants compared to 0.6% of those without infection. The National Institutes of Health Researching COVID To Enhance Recovery (NIH RECOVER) is dedicated to bringing health care providers and researchers together to understand, diagnose, prevent and treat long COVID.
“ME/CFS is a real consequence after COVID as a post infection syndrome and now that we’ve shown that the number of people impacted are potentially huge, including those who have it for other reasons, we feel we have an obligation to those people to understand how it’s happening, how to treat it and how to prevent it,” Hess said. “This is a real thing. It’s not something in their head and we are really excited to have the first opportunity to really put a number on the incidence of people who will be impacted. We’re really in the infancy period and we’re grateful to all of the people sticking with us through this study.”
The study, published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, is entitled “Incidence and Prevalence of Post-COVID-19 Myalgic Encephalomyelitis: A Report from the Observational RECOVER-Adult Study.” The study is being supported by the National Institutes of Health and is being conducted with The Bateman Horne Center and supported by the NIH.