The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that COVID-19 patients are about four times more likely to develop chronic fatigue syndrome than someone who hasn’t been infected with the virus.
“Increased awareness of fatigue and other [post-COVID-19 problems] is warranted to enable patients to seek early care when needed. Further research is also warranted to investigate the causes and preventive measures for the severe outcomes associated with post-COVID fatigue,” according to the study.
It found that chronic fatigue developed in 9 percent of the COVID-19 patient cohort, and they were 1.68 times more likely to develop just fatigue and were 4.32 times more likely to have chronic fatigue after the infection. That’s compared with those who did not contract the virus.
Older adults and women were the most likely to develop chronic fatigue and fatigue, the CDC researchers said. Women were 39 percent more likely to get a fatigue diagnosis than men, while those older in age were more likely to get a diagnosis for fatigue than those who were 18 to 29 years old.
Those who had COVID-19 and later fatigue suffered “far worse clinical outcomes,” the researchers said. Twenty-five percent of those who got a fatigue diagnosis were hospitalized after the peak of their COVID-19 infection, while 13 percent who were not diagnosed with fatigue were hospitalized, it found.
And those who developed fatigue had a slightly higher chance of dying, the study said, with 5 percent of those developing the condition dying. Only 2.3 percent of those who didn’t develop the condition after a COVID-19 infection died, the CDC found.
The CDC also found that fatigue diagnosis was also more common among those with underlying medical problems such as mental health issues, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, known as COPD.
“Our data indicate that COVID-19 is associated with a significant increase in new fatigue diagnoses, and physicians should be aware that fatigue might occur or be newly recognized [more than] one year after acute COVID-19,” the CDC wrote. “Future study is needed to better understand the possible association between fatigue and clinical outcomes.”
The authors added that the new findings “reinforce the need for public health actions to prevent infections, to provide clinical care to those in need, and to find effective treatments for post-acute COVID-19 fatigue.”
“We found many diseases and conditions to be associated with post-COVID-19 fatigue. Those associations might provide useful prognostic information for the assessment of patients with COVID-19,” it also said. “Patients with mood disorders were previously reported to be at higher risk for illness and death during acute COVID-19 and increased risk of needing post-acute care.”
The agency concluded that “physicians should be aware that fatigue might occur or be newly recognized” more than one year after developing acute COVID-19. But it noted that more studies are needed to properly understand the association between fatigue and the virus.
Several months ago, the CDC found that 3.3 million people suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome, which health officials say include symptoms such as exhaustion after physical or mental exercise, problems with memory or thinking, dizziness, joint or muscle pain, and poor sleep quality.
Chronic fatigue is characterized by at least six months of severe exhaustion not helped by bed rest, the CDC said. Patients also report pain, brain fog, and other symptoms that can get worse after exercise, work, or other activity.
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