{"id":28815,"date":"2020-11-19T10:17:06","date_gmt":"2020-11-19T10:17:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/?p=28815"},"modified":"2020-11-19T10:18:12","modified_gmt":"2020-11-19T10:18:12","slug":"long-covid-overlap-emerges-with-me-including-debate-over-treatment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/long-covid-overlap-emerges-with-me-including-debate-over-treatment\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Covid: overlap emerges with ME \u2013 including debate over treatment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guardian article<\/strong>: Long Covid: overlap emerges with ME \u2013 including debate over treatment<\/a><\/h2>\n

by Linda Geddes, Science correspondent, Thu 19 Nov 2020<\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

This article features people with long Covid, and looks at the similarities in symptoms of ME and the controversy over Graded Exercise Therapy for both.<\/h3>\n

…Based on current estimates, about 10% of Covid-19 patients develop lasting symptoms, one of the most common being fatigue. The underlying mechanism is still unclear, but possible explanations include reduced oxygen supply to tissues caused by heart or lung damage, or muscle weakness from prolonged bed rest.<\/p>\n

However, some doctors are increasingly concerned about the overlap between long Covid and another largely virus-triggered illness:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s extraordinary how many people have a postviral syndrome that\u2019s very strikingly similar to myalgic encephalomyelitis\/chronic fatigue syndrome,\u201d said the US\u2019s top public health official,\u00a0Dr Anthony Fauci,\u00a0in July. \u201cThey just don\u2019t get back to normal energy or normal feeling of good health.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like people with ME\/CFS, many long-Covid patients report headaches, brain fog, sleep problems, a racing heart, joint and muscle pain and fatigue. Some also experience a relapse of fever, muscle pain and exhaustion, known as \u201cpost-exertional malaise\u201d, if they exercise beyond their capabilities.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cThere are so many similarities between long Covid and ME\/CFS it leads me to believe the underlying pathology is probably the same \u2013 except that long Covid is presenting as an epidemic, whereas ME\/CFS has presented in a very sporadic way, and by no means in such large numbers in such a\u00a0short space of time,\u201d said Dr William Weir, a consultant in infectious diseases with a special interest in ME.<\/p>\n

Another thing the conditions have in common is medical disagreement over how best to treat the fatigue they cause. Last week, the\u00a0National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)\u00a0dropped a longstanding recommendation that patients with ME\/CFS be prescribed graded exercise therapy (GET), which involves incremental increases in physical activity to gradually build up tolerance. Patient advocates have long argued that GET can cause lasting damage to people\u2019s health.<\/p>\n

The new draft guidelines don\u2019t cover Covid-related fatigue. This may be covered by separate \u201clong Covid\u201d guidelines that are expected next month. Yet patient advocates are concerned that GET might result in similar harm for people with long Covid.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough NICE has\u00a0already issued a statement\u00a0that GET may not be appropriate for people with post Covid illness, we are concerned that several of the new NHS England clinics for Covid rehabilitation are recommending graded exercise or its equivalent to patients,\u201d said Sian Leary of the patient advocacy group #MEAction.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cIt is crucial to acknowledge that not all long-Covid patients will behave like CFS,\u201d said Dr Manoj Sivan, an associate clinical professor and consultant in rehabilitation medicine at the University of Leeds, who runs a long-Covid clinic in the city. He also sits on the BSRM\u2019s executive committee. \u201cFatigue is multifactorial, and there are some patients with deconditioning and weakness who might benefit from GET,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

However, he added that GET could be counterproductive in those patients presenting with a \u201cboom and bust\u201d pattern of symptoms consistent with postviral fatigue. Individualised patient assessment is therefore essential. \u201cWe know long Covid has different patterns of presentation and future research will look into targeting specific rehabilitation approaches to specific subgroups,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Until this happens, ME\/CFS patient advocates are urging people with long Covid to learn from their experiences of dealing with postviral fatigue, stressing the importance of \u201cpacing\u201d. This means listening to your body and balancing physical and mental activity with rest, rather than pushing yourself to boost stamina. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean you don\u2019t do anything, but if you feel you need to rest, you should stop what you are doing and rest,\u201d said Dr Amy Small, who credits the approach with her ongoing recovery.<\/p>\n

Read the full article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guardian article: Long Covid: overlap emerges with ME \u2013 including debate over treatment by Linda Geddes, Science correspondent, Thu 19 Nov 2020   This article features people with long Covid, and looks at the similarities in symptoms of ME and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[6332,5744,6331,326,77,6196,2156,405,711],"class_list":["post-28815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-dr-amy-small","tag-dr-anthony-fauci","tag-dr-manoj-sivan","tag-dr-william-weir","tag-guardian","tag-long-covid","tag-meaction","tag-pacing","tag-post-viral-fatigue"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5qkYK-7uL","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28815"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28820,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28815\/revisions\/28820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}