Scientists are growing concerned that infections of the SARS-CoV-2 virus may be triggering more cases of chronic fatigue syndrome or myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS).
A new study has found that six months or longer after a SARS-CoV-2 infection, participants were 7.5 times more likely to meet the diagnostic criteria for ME/CFS than those who had not been infected.
“Our results provide evidence that the rate and risk of developing ME/CFS following SARS-CoV-2 infection is significantly increased,” write the authors of the study, led by ME/CFS researcher Suzanne Vernon of the Bateman Horne Center in the US.
Their results, the researchers add, “are supported by other studies that have implicated infectious agents such as Epstein-Barr virus and Ross River virus and non-viral diseases such as Q fever and giardiasis…