Article in Patient: Why is ME/CFS research key to understanding long COVID?

[Sly Saint]

Authored by Amberley Davis · Reviewed by Dr Sarah Jarvis MBE11-Dec-21 · 7 mins read

ME/CFS is not a newly recognised condition and affects millions worldwide. Yet people with ME/CFS are historically misunderstood. There remain many gaps in clinical knowledge regarding causes and treatments for ME/CFS.

This said, it has long been theorised that ME/CFS - like long COVID - is a post-viral condition, meaning that it may be caused by an initial viral infection which triggers long-term symptoms that remain after the virus is gone. The existing research on ME/CFS is now being studied and revisited through the lens of long COVID.

By building on ME/CFS research and theorising connections, experts hope to avoid 'reinventing the wheel' and instead build a better understanding of both diseases and ultimately find effective treatments: "I think the tools we've applied to study ME/CFS can now easily be applied to long COVID as well. And vice versa," says Dr. Avindra Nath, clinical director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).

Long COVID and ME/CFS shared symptoms
A significant amount of people infected with COVID-19 who develop long COVID are dealing with fatigue that's so debilitating that it warrants an ME/CFS diagnosis. Some studies suggest this figure is 40%, and figures from the Office for National Statistics show that fatigue is the most common symptom experienced by people with long COVID, affecting 54% of people with the condition.

According to research, the most frequent shared symptoms of people with long COVID and people with ME/CFS are fatigue, cognitive difficulties, and post-exertional malaise (PEM).

https://patient.info/news-and-features/why-is-mecfs-research-key-to-understanding-long-covid

drsarahjarvis is on twitter as is @patient.
could someone maybe ask why ,as pointed out in the new NICE guidelines, and mentioned in this and many other articles, that PEM is a required symptom for a diagnosis of ME/CFS it is not mentioned on the NHS England main website.