Bio-IT World August 16, 2022
Evidence is emerging that long COVID (formally “post-acute sequelae SARS-CoV-2 infection,” or PASC) bears a striking, molecular-level resemblance to the disabling and complex illness now known as myalgic encephalomyelitis /chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). One key difference is that long COVID has one causal agent, the SARS-CoV-2 virus, while ME/CFS has multiple potential sources, says Warren Tate, emeritus professor in the department of biochemistry at the University of Otago (New Zealand) who has been studying both post-viral disorders.
The similarities between long COVID and ME/CFS are particularly intriguing to Tate, whose daughter’s health dramatically deteriorated more than 30 years ago after a bout of glandular fever, commonly known in the United States as the Epstein-Barr virus and...