Makhluf, Huda, Madany, Henry, Kim, Kenneth · Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024 · DOI
Long COVID is a condition affecting millions of people worldwide who continue to experience health problems months or years after a SARS-CoV-2 infection. This review article examines what we know about Long COVID symptoms—including severe tiredness, difficulty thinking clearly, heart problems, and sleep issues—and explains current theories about why these symptoms develop. The authors also summarize available treatments and clinical trials testing new approaches to help people recover.
This comprehensive review is valuable for ME/CFS patients and researchers because Long COVID shares significant clinical and pathophysiological overlap with ME/CFS, including post-exertional malaise, autonomic dysfunction, and persistent fatigue. Understanding Long COVID mechanisms and emerging treatments may illuminate parallel disease processes in ME/CFS and identify therapeutic strategies applicable to both conditions.
This systematic review does not establish causation or provide definitive evidence that any specific treatment is effective—it synthesizes existing literature rather than conducting original research or randomized controlled trials. The review cannot determine why some COVID-19 survivors develop Long COVID while others do not, nor does it prove that all Long COVID cases result from the same underlying mechanism.
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
Makhluf, Huda, Madany, Henry, & Kim, Kenneth (2024). Long COVID: Long-Term Impact of SARS-CoV2.. Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland). https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics14070711
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-makhluf-2024-long-covid,
author = {Makhluf, Huda and Madany, Henry and Kim, Kenneth},
title = {Long COVID: Long-Term Impact of SARS-CoV2.},
journal = {Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland)},
year = {2024},
doi = {10.3390/diagnostics14070711},
note = {PubMed: 38611624},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/makhluf-2024-long-covid},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-25. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/makhluf-2024-long-covid
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