After recovering from Covid a few months ago, something is still off.
You get dizzy and your heart starts to race as you stand up. Even simple tasks leave you exhausted. A good night’s sleep from the past doesn’t feel fresh now.
Covid is long, right? It might not be that easy.
Based on a current study reported in the journal Frontiers in Immunology, a mild or even asymptomatic instance of Covid can trigger reservoirs of some viruses you’ve already battled to reactivate, possibly causing symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome, a disease that resembles lengthy Covid.
Scientists discovered Epstein-Barr herpes viruses, one of the causes of mono, living in unvaccinated patients who had Covid. Antibody responses were more robust in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome, indicating an immune system that was having difficulty removing the residual infections.
These non-Covid pathogens have been identified as the most likely causes of myalgic encephalomyelitis, another name for chronic fatigue syndrome. The nonspecific condition, which has no known etiology, causes symptoms like tiredness, brain fog, motion sickness, and restless sleep.
According to doctors, the signs and symptoms of many long-term Covid patients fit the description of chronic fatigue syndrome. Specialists in the October study suggested the concept that Covid can occasionally result in immune system suppression, allowing dormant viruses linked to symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome and long Covid to become active again.
As a result, “longer Covid” in certain people may not be a completely new condition, but rather another postviral sickness that overlaps with chronic fatigue syndrome, similar to those reported in some patients after Ebola, the initial SARS of 2003–2004, and other illnesses.
