Portela, Margareth Crisóstomo, Lima, Sheyla Maria Lemos, Escosteguy, Claudia Caminha et al. · BMC infectious diseases · 2025 · DOI
This Brazilian study surveyed over 11,000 people who were hospitalized with COVID-19 to see how many experienced long-lasting symptoms months later. About 71% reported frequent ongoing symptoms like fatigue, brain fog, and joint pain, while 39% said they had Long COVID. The researchers found that women, people with previous health conditions, and certain age groups were more likely to experience these persistent symptoms.
This study addresses a critical gap in Long COVID research from low- and middle-income countries, providing population-level evidence of substantial LC burden in a vulnerable, hospitalized cohort. The explicit inclusion of post-exertional malaise—a hallmark symptom often neglected in LC research—and emphasis on symptom frequency aligns with ME/CFS clinical understanding and improves case characterization.
This cross-sectional design cannot establish causation or determine whether observed symptoms directly result from COVID-19 versus other factors. The study does not clarify whether cases meet ME/CFS diagnostic criteria (e.g., using Canadian Consensus Criteria), and reliance on self-reported LC diagnosis without independent clinical validation limits specificity.
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
Portela, Margareth Crisóstomo, Lima, Sheyla Maria Lemos, Escosteguy, Claudia Caminha, Martins, Mônica, de Vasconcellos, Maurício Teixeira Leite, Caldas, Bárbara do Nascimento, et al. (2025). Long COVID in the population of COVID-19 hospitalized patients discharged from SUS' hospitals in Rio de Janeiro City, Brazil: a patient-engaged cohort survey study.. BMC infectious diseases. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-025-11615-w
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-portela-2025-long-covid,
author = {Portela, Margareth Crisóstomo and Lima, Sheyla Maria Lemos and Escosteguy, Claudia Caminha and Martins, Mônica and de Vasconcellos, Maurício Teixeira Leite and Caldas, Bárbara do Nascimento and Bernardino, Michelle and Baginski, Natalie Perez and Góes, Gabriela and Sabaine, Brenda and Furtado, Danielle and Cavalcanti, Marta and Soares, Letícia and Stelson, Elisabeth and Singer, Sara and Cornish, Flora and Aveling, Emma-Louise},
title = {Long COVID in the population of COVID-19 hospitalized patients discharged from SUS' hospitals in Rio de Janeiro City, Brazil: a patient-engaged cohort survey study.},
journal = {BMC infectious diseases},
year = {2025},
doi = {10.1186/s12879-025-11615-w},
note = {PubMed: 41044528},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/portela-2025-long-covid},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-26. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/portela-2025-long-covid
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