Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Has Surged Since The Pandemic, Study Reveals

Science Alert
Jan 21, 2025

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Has Surged Since The Pandemic, Study Reveals


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 in the etiology of ME/CFS."

While no one knows what causes ME/CFS, viral infections are thought to be a possible trigger.