For today’s Long Covid Awareness Day, I’d like to take a closer look at the connection between Long Covid and ME/CFS in this blog post. But what are long covid and post covid anyway? Is there a difference?
What is the difference between post covid and long covid?
Post covid and long covid both refer to the persistent symptoms that can occur after COVID-19 infection. The difference between the two is only in the duration of the symptoms.
Post-Covid symptoms usually appear within four weeks of infection and last up to twelve weeks. These symptoms may include shortness of breath, cough, fatigue, muscle weakness, headache, fever, loss of sense of smell or taste, and other symptoms.
Long Covid symptoms occur longer than 12 weeks after infection and may manifest months or years later. Symptoms may include chronic fatigue, shortness of breath, cough, pain in muscles and joints, headaches, concentration and memory problems, and other symptoms.
It’s important to note that post-covoid and long-covoid symptoms can vary from person to person, and not everyone has the same symptoms. Research on this is slow in coming, and we still need to learn about Long Covid in order to find appropriate treatments.
And what does this have to do with ME/CFS?
ME/CFS is a disease that affects different systems and causes fatigue, muscle pain, headaches, trouble focusing and remembering things, sleep problems, and other symptoms. For more information, you can check out the blog post about how I was diagnosed with ME/CFS. The most important feature of ME/CFS is “postexertional malaise” (PEM), or stress intolerance. This is a worsening of symptoms after physical or mental exertion (I will write another blog post about this!).
The cause of ME/CFS is not fully understood, but it is thought that a combination of factors, including genetic, immunological and environmental, play a role, as well as viral diseases can be triggers. For example, some affected individuals had experienced Eppstein-Barr virus disease prior to ME/CFS.
Since corona or COVID-19 is also a viral disease, it can also trigger ME/CFS. Many Long Covid patients also have ME/CFS, and some ME/CFS patients’ symptoms have gotten worse due to Covid-19.
Many Long Covid patients suffer from the stress intolerance (PEM) I just mentioned, which makes life difficult for them. No treatment available for ME/CFS or Long Covid in Germany. And still some wrong advice such as “do sports” or “lose weight” are given by doctors! I hope everyone with Post/Long Covid or ME/CFS can get better soon with effective medical treatments and drugs. I hope we all get better soon and receive proper medical care and medication, regardless of whether we have Post/Long Covid or ME/CFS.the better soon and that we will get reasonable medical treatments and drugs!