Ghosh, Pritha, Niesen, Michiel J M, Pawlowski, Colin et al. · iScience · 2024 · DOI
This study looked at nearly 89,000 COVID-19 patients to understand why some develop long COVID (lasting symptoms months after infection) while others recover quickly. Researchers found that people with a history of lung disease, migraines, or fibromyalgia were more likely to develop long COVID, and those who had severe acute COVID infections were also at higher risk. The findings suggest that reducing the severity of the initial COVID infection, especially in vulnerable patients, might help prevent long COVID from developing.
This study identifies pre-existing conditions and acute-phase severity markers that increase long COVID risk, which is directly relevant to ME/CFS since CFS was listed as a risk factor and many long-COVID patients meet ME/CFS criteria. Understanding these risk factors could help clinicians identify high-risk patients early and potentially implement preventive strategies during acute infection. For researchers, the biomarker findings (lipid profiles, neutrophil-lymphocyte ratios) provide measurable targets for understanding the biological mechanisms underlying post-viral illnesses.
This study does not prove causation—finding that chronic pulmonary disease is associated with long COVID does not mean the lung disease causes it; both may share common underlying vulnerabilities. The study cannot establish whether the identified biomarker abnormalities during acute infection directly cause long COVID or are merely correlates of infection severity. Additionally, the study cannot explain *why* these particular conditions increase risk or whether interventions targeting acute severity would actually prevent long COVID development in real-world practice.
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 →
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