Some specialists say the current crisis of long COVID is related to the neglect of similar chronic illnesses, like ME/CFS.
Read MoreLike other similar, neglected chronic illnesses, it defies a simplistic model of infectious disease in which a pathogen causes a predictable set of easily defined symptoms that alleviate when the bug is destroyed. It challenges our belief in our institutions, because truly contending with what long-haulers go through means acknowledging how poorly the health-care system treats chronically ill patients, how inaccessible social support is to them, and how many callous indignities they suffer at the hands of even those closest to them.
Read MoreThis article is part of a Health Affairs Forefront series titled “New Challenges for Health Care.” The series of five articles focuses on emerging issues that are facing decision-makers at provider organizations, insurers, public agencies, purchasers, and academic institutions in the health care sector.
Read MoreBelieve it or not, our current pandemic of post-infectious disease—long COVID—isn’t unprecedented. It has a little-known older sibling. Those affected have simply been left to suffer.
Read MoreTaking a lesson from people with chronic fatigue [syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis], many patients with long covid are scaling back daily activity to cope.
Read MoreAlmost three years into the pandemic, she has plenty of company on her quest for an answer. Millions of people around the world have developed Long COVID, or long-lasting symptoms that follow a case of COVID-19. Many of these symptoms look quite similar to the fatigue, cognitive decline, and crashes after exertion (formally known as post-exertional malaise, or PEM) observed among ME/CFS patients.
Read MoreOnly a couple dozen doctors specialize in chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). Now their knowledge could be crucial to treating millions more patients.
Read More(Brian Vastag) What the researchers found as they took our blood, harvested our stem cells, ran tests to check our brain function, put us through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), strapped us to tilt tables, ran tests on our heart and lungs, and more could have helped prepare doctors everywhere for the avalanche of long COVID cases that’s come alongside the pandemic.
Instead, we are all still waiting for answers.
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