Espinosa Rodríguez, P, Martínez Aguilar, A, Ripoll Muñoz, M P et al. · Semergen · 2022 · DOI
This review examines whether long COVID (prolonged symptoms after COVID-19 infection) might actually be myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS). The authors found striking similarities between long COVID symptoms and the diagnostic criteria used to identify ME/CFS. They recommend that patients with ongoing symptoms after COVID-19 receive blood tests, chest imaging, and long-term medical follow-up to monitor for potential chronic illness development.
For ME/CFS patients, this study is important because it explores whether a newly recognized post-viral condition (long COVID) might share pathophysiological mechanisms with established ME/CFS, potentially advancing understanding of post-viral chronic illness. The findings support the need for long-term follow-up protocols and suggest that clinical experience gained from COVID-19 research could illuminate ME/CFS pathogenesis and management.
This review does not establish that long COVID is definitively ME/CFS—it identifies similarities but cannot prove causation or that they are identical conditions. The study presents no new empirical data, diagnostic accuracy statistics, or prevalence figures, so it does not quantify how often long COVID actually develops into ME/CFS. It also does not address potential differences in etiology, immune markers, or treatment response between the two conditions.
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
Espinosa Rodríguez, P, Martínez Aguilar, A, Ripoll Muñoz, M P, & Rodríguez Navarro, M Á (2022). [Long COVID: Is it really myalgic encephalomyelitis? Bibliographic review and considerations].. Semergen. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.semerg.2021.03.006
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-espinosa-rodrguez-2022-long-covid,
author = {Espinosa Rodríguez, P and Martínez Aguilar, A and Ripoll Muñoz, M P and Rodríguez Navarro, M Á},
title = {[Long COVID: Is it really myalgic encephalomyelitis? Bibliographic review and considerations].},
journal = {Semergen},
year = {2022},
doi = {10.1016/j.semerg.2021.03.006},
note = {PubMed: 34531126},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/espinosa-rodrguez-2022-long-covid},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/espinosa-rodrguez-2022-long-covid
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