Experts say chronic fatigue syndrome may be long-term effects of Covid-19

Terry Wilder fell ill in 2014, sleeping everyday shortly after coming home from work, lying in bed all weekend, recovering enough to drag him to work the next week.

“I couldn’t barely raise my hand to stop the taxi,” she said.

Almost two years later, Wilder was diagnosed with a condition called myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome. It is a neuroimmune condition with symptoms such as brain fog, severe fatigue, pain, immune abnormalities, and post-exercise malaise.

She has worked for decades as a social worker and activist in a marginalized community focusing on HIV research and education programs and LGBTQ health. Wilder was shocked and discovered that ME/CFS lacked a drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Scientists studying this disease receive only about $5 million in research funding each year from the National Institutes of Health.

At that point, she settled into a whole new marginalized illness community, reminiscent of the blamed groups who fought during the height of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s.

The chronic disease ME/CFS can last decades. Often transmitted by some form of viral infection, such as the Epstein-Barr virus or the Ross River virus. The novel coronavirus is another virus that can cause the development of this debilitating condition.

Wilder fears that hundreds of thousands of people with Covid-19 may develop the same illness that plagues her. And leading medical professionals have the same concerns.

“Even after clearing the virus, there are post-viral symptoms. I know because I’m calling me by phone and following so many people talking about their course.” Allergies and infections Infectious Diseases Research Institute, interview on July 17 Medscape..

“It is unusual for so many people to have a post-viral syndrome that closely resembles myelopathic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome.”

Many are ill and continue to be ill

More than six months after the global coronavirus crisis, many who have signed for Covid-19 have not fully recovered.

Up to 35% of people diagnosed with Covid-19 were not returning to normal within 2-3 weeks after a positive coronavirus test, according to a July 24 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ..

Of the 292 CDC studies of post-Covid recovery, those who recovered from Covid-19 reported a median of 7 CDC symptoms.

35% reported fatigue. 1 in 5 young people aged 18 to 34 have no other chronic illness report They were not fully recovered.

One of the people who is still suffering from symptoms a few months later is CNN anchor Chris Cuomo. He first announced on March 31 that he tested positive for coronavirus.

speak His show On July 14, he pointed out that myalgic encephalomyelitis was proposed to him as a reason for his incomplete recovery.

“There is an indelible brain fog,” said Kuomo. “I experienced the onset of clinical depression, but it’s not sadness. People keep telling me, “don’t be sad.” I’m not sad, I’m depressed.

Cuomo regularly broadcasts his fight against Covid-19 and talks to Twitter viewers about his journey. Many say that Covid-19’s symptoms are also protracted.

“We can’t recover from a workout like we used to,” he continued.

According to 2015, failure to recover from exercise or post-exercise malaise is often considered a characteristic ME/CFS symptom To report By the National Academy of Medicine. The report also estimated that between 836,000 and 2.5 million Americans suffer from ME / CFS, although most are undiagnosed.

Currently, ME/CFS is estimated to have an impact of $17 to $24 billion on the US economy, based on medical costs and loss of patient income from many disabilities. according to To CDC.

It is important to rest if you have chronic Covid-19

Wilder got the start by reading a press report on a Covid-19 patient who wasn’t recovering as he lived with ME/CFS and saw Covid-19 plunder her city.

She uses all the connections from her career in public health to help so-called Covid’s “long haulers” raise alerts about the chronic conditions they are likely to face in the coming months or years. I am.

On Friday, Wilder Webinar For people facing the protracted impact of Covid-19. The event, in collaboration with the Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Action Network, sold out quickly with minimal advertising, indicating that there is likely to be a great need for the information provided by her and the ME / CFS clinician.

“The first thing that scares me is not to exercise. You can make yourself sick.” “This is what everyone with me wants someone to tell them in advance. I don’t want people to experience what we did.”

The CDC recommends that individuals with ME/CFS should prioritize activity management or pacing. In other words, you need to understand your physical and cognitive limits and stay within them. This causes a crash and reverts to recovery. “Some patients and doctors describe staying within these limits as staying within the “energy envelope,” officials said.

Researchers monitor the progress of patients’ symptoms

Many research and support groups are preparing to help people suffering from long-term Covid-19 symptoms and investigate why and why immune system abnormalities can lead to ME/CFS ..

More than 14,000 I participated An online Covid-19 support group on the Body Politic website. The community provides insights to those who have a positive reaction, are experiencing symptoms, or are recovering from Covid-19. It also includes a special section for those who have had Covid symptoms for more than 30 or 90 days.

Members of parliament are equally interested.

The Democratic Party of Maryland, Jamie Ruskin, is co-sponsoring the bill, HR 7057“About Covid-19 Subsets and ME/CFS Law” The legislation entails $60 million in federal funding for projects such as data collection, collaborative research centers, and medical research programs conducted by the National Institutes of Health and the US Department of Veterans Affairs , Or requesting $15 million annually until 2024.

One of the groups Maybe fight Additional federal resources include the Stanford and Harvard Centers and the Open Medicine Foundation, a collaborative study of scientists focused on ME / CFS research.

This group will start a study of Covid-19 patients and monitor their disease and its possible sequelae, and in particular how the possible chronic conditions after the disease develop. Researchers analyze the patient’s genome, as well as the complete protein and metabolic profile on a regular basis.

“Covid-19 gives us an unprecedented opportunity to advance our understanding of postviral disease,” said Dr. Ami Mac, director of translational medicine at the Stanford Genome Technology Center associated with OMF. It was.

“This leaves us with countless new patients in a situation where we have suffered many years of public health disasters and feel like “live death” to the affected us.” Mac said.

In the coming weeks, researchers will complete the creation of an app that will track patients and symptoms of Covid-19 and track when and how they develop symptoms consistent with ME/CFS.

“We plan to take long-term blood samples over the years so that we can see what molecular changes occur that prevent resolution of symptoms,” she said.

Both Mack and Wilder plan to continue dedicating themselves as strong defenders of the Covid-19 long haulers who need all the scientific and social support they can get.

One way Wilder did it was to ask Foech a question about ME / CFS and Covid-19 at a press conference on July 9th hosted by the International AIDS Association.

Faux’s recognition of Link won an international headline, and he continued to publicly compare the two conditions on at least two other occasions last month.

“Because of our background in HIV and our knowledge of social activist groups like Act Up, we must immediately realize that we must work together and take every opportunity available to us. I realized that,” Wilder said.