Carrillo Uguña, Miguel Esteban, Orellana Romero, Paula Michelle · Vertex (Buenos Aires, Argentina) · 2024 · DOI
This review examines how some COVID-19 survivors develop symptoms very similar to ME/CFS weeks or months after their acute infection ends. The authors found that over 87% of COVID-19 patients still experience at least one symptom two months after infection, and some of these symptoms match what ME/CFS patients experience. The study suggests that COVID-19 may trigger ME/CFS-like illness in some adults, similar to how other infections have been linked to ME/CFS in the past.
This review is important because it formally documents the emerging clinical observation that COVID-19 may precipitate ME/CFS-like illness in some survivors, which helps validate patients' experiences and may prompt clinicians to recognize post-COVID ME/CFS cases. Understanding this potential link could improve diagnosis and management of a significant post-pandemic complication affecting millions of people worldwide.
This review does not establish causal mechanisms linking COVID-19 infection to ME/CFS development, nor does it provide precise incidence rates of ME/CFS among COVID-19 survivors. The study cannot distinguish between symptom overlap and true ME/CFS diagnosis, and cannot rule out alternative explanations for persistent symptoms in post-COVID patients.
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 →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Carrillo Uguña, Miguel Esteban & Orellana Romero, Paula Michelle (2024). [Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome as a complication of COVID-19 post-acute syndrome in adults. Bibliographic Review].. Vertex (Buenos Aires, Argentina). https://doi.org/10.53680/vertex.v34i162.507
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-carrillo-ugua-2024-myalgic-encephalomyelitis,
author = {Carrillo Uguña, Miguel Esteban and Orellana Romero, Paula Michelle},
title = {[Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome as a complication of COVID-19 post-acute syndrome in adults. Bibliographic Review].},
journal = {Vertex (Buenos Aires, Argentina)},
year = {2024},
doi = {10.53680/vertex.v34i162.507},
note = {PubMed: 38197620},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/carrillo-ugua-2024-myalgic-encephalomyelitis},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-26. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/carrillo-ugua-2024-myalgic-encephalomyelitis
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