Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Caused By Covid-19 In Youngsters

While older adults are among the most susceptible to COVID-19’s ravages, recent studies warn that even though their COVID-19 infection is moderate, young patients may experience long-term exhaustion and concentration issues.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Caused By Covid-19 In Youngsters

This is the sobering conclusion from three COVID-19 incidents affecting patients aged 19 to 30. According to the researchers, they all developed what amounted to textbook signs of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).

Dr. Rowe, who was part of the committee that investigated the cases, said that when the three contracted COVID-19 between April and June of 2020, they all had relatively minor respiratory conditions that did not require oxygen or hospitalization.

Rowe, the director of the Chronic Fatigue Clinic at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore, added that all were weakened from the start by fatigue and lightheadedness, as well as problems with concentrating. All three were unable to complete activities that they used to do easily, such as sitting upright at the computer, cooking, and exercising.

The researchers determined that all of the participants had symptoms consistent with CFS, a disorder now known as ME/CFS (myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome) and the signs continued in all three cases for at least a year after they first appeared.

One of the college-aged patients, for example, was a cross-country runner who runs 60 to 70 miles per week, according to Rowe. However, after contracting COVID-19 and experiencing CFS symptoms, the patient is only able to take two 15-minute walks a day.

Another of the patients, despite being qualified as a high-level physicist, has been unable to function over the past year due to nausea and cognitive brain fog while standing.

The researchers discovered that all three patients had extreme orthostatic intolerance, a situation in which a patient gets lightheaded or weak after standing for a few minutes and has a rapid heartbeat.

All had acquired exercise aversion, which presents as extreme malaise after physical exertion, as well as inflammation consistent with allergies, such as recurring outbreaks of hives and food intolerance. In addition, all of them suffered from other primary signs of CFS, such as insomnia and trouble focusing and concentrating.

According to one analyst who was not interested in the report, the results are not shocking.

Many patients suffering from COVID-19 infection have developed CFS symptoms, according to Dr. Franz, who is a clinician-scientist at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, Northwestern Medicine, and head of the regenerative neurorehabilitation laboratory, Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, both in Chicago.

According to recent data, the majority of adult COVID-19 patients experience a level of drowsiness, headaches, numbness, and tingling, as well as body pain and aches (myalgia).

Rowe clarified that they don’t have much clarity about the possibility that CFS is caused by COVID-19. According to him, one explanation is that it is a direct consequence of the virus’s effect on the patient’s autonomic nervous system. It may also be the product of an indirect effect caused by the patient’s immune reaction to the virus.

In either case, although therapies aimed at controlling inflammation and elevated heart rates aided all of the patients in the sample, they continue to be severely affected regularly even after going through intensive therapy. According to Rowe, this is now affecting their life 11 to 14 months after they became ill.

Rowe simply advises youngsters to just get vaccinated. It is a debilitating disease that takes away people’s right to live a normal life, remember, walk about freely, and further their education or professions. It will last for years in some cases, and it is lifelong in others. According to Rowe, it confines many people to their homes and renders them disabled. People must do everything possible to prevent post-COVID ME/CFS, and the most straightforward way to do so is to get the COVID-19 vaccine.