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People who have had COVID-19 are more likely to develop chronic fatigue syndrome, officially known as myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS).

That’s according to a study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine earlier this month, which found that 4.5% of people infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID, developed chronic fatigue.

In comparison, only 0.6% of study participants who did not have COVID developed the second condition.

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The researchers determined that cases of ME/CFS were 15 times higher than pre-pandemic levels.

“As a researcher dedicated to understanding how viral infections lead to chronic illness, I suspected from the beginning of the pandemic that SARS-CoV2 could trigger ME/CFS, so these results are not surprising,” said lead study author Suzanne D. Vernon, PhD, from the Bateman Horne Center in Salt Lake City.

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The study was part of the National Institute of Health’s RECOVER (Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery) program, which aims to better understand, prevent and treat long COVID, according to an NIH press release.

The study included 11,785 participants. At least six months after they were infected with COVID, researchers assessed whether they had developed chronic fatigue. They then compared those results to 1,439 people who did not have COVID.

The researchers determined that cases of ME/CFS were 15 times higher than pre-pandemic levels. (iStock)

“There are no specific tests or biomarkers, so ME/CFS is diagnosed when someone has a constellation of specific symptoms,” Vernon told Fox News Digital. 

“This study asked participants questions to determine what symptoms they were experiencing, which can be viewed as a limitation but is currently the approach used to diagnose ME/CFS.”

“It’s well-known that chronic fatigue syndrome can occur in the setting of viral infections.”

Dr. Kenneth J. Perry, a physician based in South Carolina, wasn’t surprised by the incidence of chronic fatigue after a SARS-CoV-2 infection. 

“It’s well-known that chronic fatigue syndrome can occur in the setting of viral infections,” Perry, who was not involved in the research, told Fox News Digital. 

“Given the fact that SARS-CoV-2 was a novel virus at the time of the pandemic, the incidence and prevalence of such post-infection syndromes was difficult to predict.”

“It’s well-known that chronic fatigue syndrome can occur in the setting of viral infections,” a physician told Fox News Digital. (iStock)

The study does have some limitations when attempting to compare between different viruses, the doctor noted.  

“Patients were required to self-report their symptoms,” he said. “This makes the ability to compare symptoms across viruses difficult, as the spotlight on COVID will increase the possibility of selection bias.”

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It’s difficult to specifically determine how chronic fatigue happens in the setting of a viral infection, according to Perry. 

“More studies would have to be done to determine the actual underlying pathophysiology of the disease,” he said. “Given that lack of complete understanding, it is difficult to determine how to adequately prevent the syndrome.”

What to know about chronic fatigue

ME/CFS is a “complex, serious and chronic condition that often occurs following an infection,” the NIH wrote.

The condition is marked by “new-onset fatigue” that lasts for at least six months and impairs the person’s ability to engage in ordinary activities.

“There are both physical and psychological components to the syndrome.”

Another symptom is “post-exertional malaise,” in which the person feels extreme fatigue after physical or mental activity, the study stated.

People with ME/CFS may also experience “unrefreshing sleep,” as well as cognitive impairment or dizziness when standing.

Many of these symptoms are also associated with long COVID, the researchers wrote.

“Chronic fatigue syndrome can be very problematic for patients,” Perry told Fox News Digital. “There are both physical and psychological components of the syndrome.”

“Having a relationship with a physician who knows your baseline activity level is going to ensure an appropriate evaluation and intervention if there are any changes,” a doctor advised. (iStock)

Perry reiterated that patients can experience direct fatigue and a decreased ability to do normal activities — and this can also lead to anxiety and depression due to these changes. 

“It is very difficult to adequately understand the difference between chronic fatigue syndrome and … underlying psychiatric/psychological health changes,” he said. “This makes it a very difficult disease to explain for patients.”

‘Urgent call to action’

Those experiencing symptoms of chronic fatigue should contact their primary care doctor, Perry advised. 

“Having a relationship with a physician who knows your baseline activity level is going to ensure an appropriate evaluation and intervention if there are any changes,” he said.

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“For example, a triathlete who can no longer even stay awake through the entirety of a workday would absolutely be concerning to a physician who knows that patient well. This relationship would also allow for appropriate medications and therapies to be initiated earlier in the process.”

“The dramatic increase in ME/CFS cases post-COVID-19 means that providers will encounter this condition far more frequently,” the researcher said. (iStock)

This research underscores an “urgent call to action,” Vernon said — “especially to healthcare providers.”  

“The dramatic increase in ME/CFS cases post-COVID-19 means that providers will encounter this condition far more frequently,” she predicted. 

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The researcher called for early recognition and proper management of ME/CFS, which she said can be “life-changing” for patients.

“We hope this study helps everyone understand that ME/CFS is a real and diagnosable condition that demands attention, especially in the wake of a global pandemic.”

And from the more westerly of the two docks, it was possible to stare directly at the smaller, even more westerly, even more private dock reserved for the exclusive use of guests staying in the Vivamayr villa (which goes for 3,750 euros per night). My fellow regular guests and I squinted at the private villa dock and tried to discern the facial characteristics, or even the age, of the woman we saw there. (Impossible.) Constantly, people were eyeing one another to see if anyone was a celebrity. As nice and as expensive as Vivamayr was, just about everyone knew of somewhere even nicer and even more expensive, where even wealthier people could pay money for similar services; I overheard so much talk of such places that I eventually found myself thinking of Vivamayr as their rundown, dumpy cousin. Was this, I wondered, the key to Vivamayr’s success? Can the ultrawealthy be convinced of the program’s virtue only if their destination is, in some way, less than ideal?

When I’d chronicled my relentless pursuit of sweetness for my Vivamayr doctor, her eyes had sparkled like sanding sugar on grocery-store cookies cut in seasonal shapes. “I have something in mind,” she said at our first meeting: “Functional MyoDiagnostic” testing for “food intolerances.” I had no idea what the hell that was; sounded great.

On the appointed afternoon, I climbed steep sunlit stairs to her office. She bade me lie down on an exam table. I was to use my thigh muscles to move my knee toward my head, overpowering gentle pressure from her as she pushed the knee in the opposite direction. I moved it easily. She began tapping teensy smidgens of substances onto my tongue with the aid of a wooden depressor. After each deposit of crumbs, I was instructed to repeat the knee-to-head maneuver. If my tongue encountered a substance my body “does not like,” the doctor said, my muscles would get weaker for up to 20 seconds, before recovering. In this way, she would identify allergies, weaknesses and deficiencies in my diet. I moved my knee without any trouble until she placed a fine white powder onto my tongue; suddenly, I could barely push against her. “That’s actually what I thought,” she said.

My muscles had reacted poorly to a few crumbs of yeast, the doctor reported, which meant that my craving for sweets was caused by a fungal infection in my gut. The microorganisms of the infection, she explained, lived on sweets, and I was feeding them constantly. “We have to starve it out,” the doctor said, of the thing growing inside me. “You know what it means: No sweets. No yeast.” I would also have to take medication. I was staggered. What I had believed was my own preference was apparently the insatiable appetite of a foreign invader. “What would cause this?” I asked. The doctor believed I had had this infection “for a very long time”; perhaps it grew out of an antibiotic I took at some point in childhood, she said. She was “absolutely astonished,” that my body had not been further ravaged.

I was not ready to give up sweets just because I had lost control of my person decades ago to some alien fungus that had hijacked my mind in its relentless pursuit of sugar. Because I was functioning well with the infection, I wondered aloud, wasn’t there a risk that, if I tried to eradicate it, my body chemistry would fall out of whack? The only risk, the doctor said, was in continuing to allow it to flourish unchecked. “It might interfere with your intestines” if I kept it “too long,” she said. “It might really harm your bowels. And your sugar craving will never end.” If I successfully eradicated the infection, she added, my digestion, which was already good, might, in some way, become even better.