Anyone who is sick feels weak and tired. But what if the exhaustion doesn't want to go away after surviving an infection? Covid-19 patients can be affected.
- Intensive research is being carried out on Covid-19 as a "young" disease with the first reported case in December 2019.
- Long-term studies are lacking, but doctors are constantly finding new information about how the disease manifests itself in the body * and what effects it has.
- The testimonials from patients also play a decisive role. There are those who suffer from chronic exhaustion long after they have survived a coronavirus infection .
Covid-19 is far from being fully researched. New studies help doctors and researchers to better understand the disease and thus lay the foundation for new effective drugs and vaccines. With regard to the long-term effects or permanent damage caused by Covid-19, initial studies are worrying doctors and specialists. This can lead to impaired lung function even after the illness has been overcome and persistent heart problems are also possible. However, it is still uncertain whether these will persist in the long term .
What also worries doctors: some patients report leaden exhaustion that torments them long after a coronavirus infection . This condition is also referred to as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) by doctors and can go so far that those affected can no longer work. Even talking to friends or getting dressed in the morning can make long breaks afterwards necessary.
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Chronic exhaustion after Covid-19: those affected can no longer work
Zeit.de spoke to a Covid 19 patient who is going through just that. The 33-year-old, who does not want to be named, fell ill with Covid-19 in March 2020, but has been healthy again for around three months. But the young woman doesn't feel that way. Where she used to put away up to twelve hours of work a day as a freelancer in the film industry, today she is enormously exhausted after around three hours. Even long conversations with friends or going to her apartment, which is on the third floor , are so exhausting that she needs some rest afterwards , according to zeit.de.
Doctors refer to such long-lasting symptoms as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), which can also occur after infection with the Epstein-Barr virus, the cause of Pfeiffer's glandular fever. It is typical of severe exhaustion that it is not due to a lack of sleep and is not triggered by exertion. In the case of Covid-19, doctors attribute CFS to coronavirus infection. However, it is not yet clear whether the severe exhaustion in some coronavirus patients will go away or become chronic . More studies need to follow to answer this question. (jg) * Merkur.de is part of the Germany-wide Ippen-Digital editorial network .
Living with chronic exhaustion
Read more : Doctors didn't believe a word she said: Young woman is so exhausted that she cannot get out of bed.