Yong, Shin Jie · Infectious diseases (London, England) · 2021 · DOI
This review examines what we know about Long COVID, an illness that affects some people after they recover from COVID-19 infection. The main symptoms are extreme tiredness and breathing difficulties that last for months, along with brain fog, pain, and heart problems. Researchers found that Long COVID may be caused by lasting damage to organs like the lungs and brain, combined with ongoing inflammation in the body.
This review is significant for ME/CFS communities because it identifies Long COVID as potentially sharing overlapping pathophysiology with ME/CFS, POTS, and MCAS—suggesting that treatments developed for these conditions may be relevant to Long COVID patients. Understanding Long COVID mechanisms may also advance knowledge about similar post-viral illnesses, including ME/CFS, which lacks clear etiology.
This review does not establish causation for any proposed mechanism or risk factor—it synthesizes existing literature which itself may contain correlational data only. The review acknowledges that precise definitions of Long COVID were lacking at the time, limiting the quality of evidence synthesis. It does not provide robust clinical trial evidence for any specific treatment approach.
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 →
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Primary citation
Yong, Shin Jie (2021). Long COVID or post-COVID-19 syndrome: putative pathophysiology, risk factors, and treatments.. Infectious diseases (London, England). https://doi.org/10.1080/23744235.2021.1924397
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-yong-2021-long-covid,
author = {Yong, Shin Jie},
title = {Long COVID or post-COVID-19 syndrome: putative pathophysiology, risk factors, and treatments.},
journal = {Infectious diseases (London, England)},
year = {2021},
doi = {10.1080/23744235.2021.1924397},
note = {PubMed: 34024217},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/yong-2021-long-covid},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-28. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/yong-2021-long-covid
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