Before long Covid there was post-viral fatigue – a mysterious set of illnesses caused by other infections. Now scientists are starting to unravel it

Long Fatigue: The exhaustion that lingers after an infection

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2024-11-22 05:00:04

Before long Covid there was post-viral fatigue – a mysterious set of illnesses caused by other infections. Now scientists are starting to unravel its secrets.

Since an acute infection with Covid-19 in the summer of 2023, Rachael Edwards has been battling a fatigue so crippling that it has left her bedridden for weeks at a time. A previously healthy 31-year-old marketing manager living in Amsterdam, she describes feeling like she is "weighted down by an anchor".

"Long Covid fatigue differs from the exhaustion of parenting newborns or long days at the office in a number of ways," says Edwards. "Imagine you've completed the hardest marathon of your life with poor sleep and no fuel. Then after the adrenaline has worn off, try walking up a flight of 100 stairs. That is how my body feels. My muscles won't move. I can't even hold my hand above my head," she says.

With the Covid-19 pandemic came long Covid, the lingering symptoms after an infection with the virus has cleared. Now it is long Covid which has opened a new window into the study of post-viral fatigue – a similar illness of persistent exhaustion which some people experience after recovering from other kinds of infection.