September 17, 2020

expert reaction to unpublished conference abstract on fatigue following SARS-CoV-2 infection

A conference abstract, presented at the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Conference on Coronavirus Disease (ECCVID), discusses fatigue following SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Dr Michael Head, Senior Research Fellow in Global Health, University of Southampton, said:

“This analysis highlights levels of fatigue in hospitalised and non-hospitalised COVID-19 patients who are deemed to have ‘recovered’. The results clearly show that around half of this cohort experienced fatigue several weeks after their initial infection had cleared. We are increasingly seeing evidence of ‘long COVID’, and fatigue is one of the commonly-reported side-effects. This study highlights that fatigue was experienced in both hospitalised patients and in those with milder initial presentations.

“The emerging extent of long COVID is why it is important to reduce community transmission, even among younger groups of people who are not immediately seriously ill.”

The abstract ‘Persistent fatigue following SARS-CoV-2 infection is common and independent of severity of initial infection’ by L. Townsend et al. has been press released from the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Conference on Coronavirus Disease (ECCVID). 

There is no paper and this is not peer-reviewed.

Declared interests

None received.