Vernon, Suzanne D, Zheng, Tianyu, Do, Hyungrok et al. · Journal of general internal medicine · 2025 · DOI
This study tracked over 11,000 people who had COVID-19 and about 1,400 who didn't, following them for at least 6 months to see how many developed ME/CFS. Researchers found that people who had COVID-19 were nearly 5 times more likely to develop ME/CFS compared to people who never had COVID-19. About 4.5% of COVID-infected participants developed ME/CFS, compared to only 0.6% of uninfected people.
This is the first large-scale study to quantify how often ME/CFS develops specifically after COVID-19, providing critical epidemiological data that validates ME/CFS as a documented post-infection complication. These findings support the need for ME/CFS recognition, screening protocols, and clinical management guidelines in post-COVID care, while also advancing understanding of infection-triggered ME/CFS mechanisms.
This study does not establish what biological mechanisms cause post-COVID-19 ME/CFS, nor does it determine whether all cases are identical or involve different pathways. The reliance on self-reported symptoms means some mild cases may go undetected while borderline cases could be misclassified, and symptom fluctuation over time could affect prevalence estimates.
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
Vernon, Suzanne D, Zheng, Tianyu, Do, Hyungrok, Marconi, Vincent C, Jason, Leonard A, Singer, Nora G, et al. (2025). Incidence and Prevalence of Post-COVID-19 Myalgic Encephalomyelitis: A Report from the Observational RECOVER-Adult Study.. Journal of general internal medicine. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-024-09290-9
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-vernon-2025-incidence-prevalence,
author = {Vernon, Suzanne D and Zheng, Tianyu and Do, Hyungrok and Marconi, Vincent C and Jason, Leonard A and Singer, Nora G and Natelson, Benjamin H and Sherif, Zaki A and Bonilla, Hector Fabio and Taylor, Emily and Mullington, Janet M and Ashktorab, Hassan and Laiyemo, Adeyinka O and Brim, Hassan and Patterson, Thomas F and Akintonwa, Teresa T and Sekar, Anisha and Peluso, Michael J and Maniar, Nikita and Bateman, Lucinda and Horwitz, Leora I and Hess, Rachel and NIH Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) Consortium},
title = {Incidence and Prevalence of Post-COVID-19 Myalgic Encephalomyelitis: A Report from the Observational RECOVER-Adult Study.},
journal = {Journal of general internal medicine},
year = {2025},
doi = {10.1007/s11606-024-09290-9},
note = {PubMed: 39804551},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/vernon-2025-incidence-prevalence},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-28. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/vernon-2025-incidence-prevalence
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