Long COVID diagnosis complicated by vague symptoms, overlap with other illnesses--new studies

Vague symptoms, overlap with other illnesses complicate long-COVID diagnosis If the third vaccine dose was administered 16 weeks or less before infection, healthcare providers had lower odds of reporting respiratory symptoms. CIDRAP

... in Nature Communications, Monday, Canadian researchers highlight diagnostic challenges with the World Health Organization's clinical definition of long COVID, with a study showing that over a third of previously infected emergency department (ED) patients met the criteria—as did a fifth of those who reported no history of infection.

And a related systematic review and meta-analysis by Australian researchers finds that 51% of long-COVID patients also met the diagnostic criteria for myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). The research was published yesterday in the Journal of Infection. ME/CFS is a complex, long-term illness characterized by extreme fatigue aggravated by physical or mental activity.