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What is Long COVID?
Long COVID is a collective term for various conditions that can occur after a COVID-19 infection. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the term "classic Post COVID" is defined as the persistence of COVID-19 symptoms three months or longer after the initial infection and/or the development of new symptoms related to the initial infection during that time period.
These symptoms must then persist for at least several more months and cannot be explained by other causes in order to be diagnosed as Long COVID.
Although more than 200 different Long COVID symptoms are known to date, there are a handful that occur repeatedly and are often characteristic of the condition. These include, for example, fatigue and shortness of breath, as well as cognitive issues such as impaired memory.
What is the connection between Long COVID and ME/CFS?
The abbreviation ME/CFS stands for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. It is a severe neuroimmunological disease that has been classified as such by the WHO since 1969. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of affected individuals in Germany was estimated at approximately 250,000 and, according to experts, has likely doubled since then. Studies suggest that around 50% of Long COVID patients meet the criteria for an ME/CFS diagnosis, with the number of unreported cases presumably much higher.