Fernández-Lázaro, Diego, Sánchez-Serrano, Nerea, Mielgo-Ayuso, Juan et al. · Journal of clinical medicine · 2021 · DOI
Long COVID is a condition where symptoms persist for weeks to months after an acute COVID-19 infection. The main symptoms include severe fatigue, difficulty with physical activity that worsens symptoms, brain fog, and reduced ability to do daily activities. This review summarizes what is currently known about Long COVID, including its causes, risk factors, and possible treatments.
This systematic review provides an important synthesis of emerging evidence about Long COVID, which shares substantial clinical and mechanistic overlap with ME/CFS, including post-exertional malaise and multisystem dysfunction. Understanding Long COVID pathophysiology and risk factors may illuminate ME/CFS mechanisms and inform treatment development for both conditions. The identification of modifiable risk factors and current management strategies offers valuable context for researchers investigating persistent viral and post-infectious conditions.
This systematic review does not establish causal mechanisms for Long COVID—the identified potential mechanisms (viral persistence, immune dysregulation, coagulation abnormalities) remain hypothetical rather than proven. The review cannot demonstrate efficacy of proposed treatments, as no randomized controlled trials of specific interventions are systematically evaluated. Additionally, the review does not prove that Long COVID and ME/CFS are identical conditions, despite symptom overlap.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
Spotted an error in this entry? Report it →