'Very small' link between COVID-19 and ME/CFS in kids

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2022-09-28 01:00

International

PHOTO: Daniela Chan/Unsplash

Researchers studied more than 600 German children in hospital to look for any links between previous COVID-19 infection and myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) in children and teens. This study found there was a risk of chronic fatigue symptoms in kids who had a prior COVID-19 infection (based on seroprevalence surveys), but this risk dropped when they adjusted for factors like sex, age group, and pre-existing diseases - and when they just looked at kids who previously had COVID-19 but weren’t aware of it. While the risk can’t be ruled out entirely, they say recall bias may be contributing to risk estimates, and more reliable forms of testing are needed to help get a better picture of what’s going on

Media release

From:

Journal/
conference: JAMA Network Open

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: See paper for full list of organisations.

Funder: The work was supported by grant FKZ:01KI20131A from the BMBF. Dr Jank reported receiving grants from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) during the conduct of the study. Dr Lander reported receiving grants from the BMBF during the conduct of the study. Dr Liese reported receiving grants from the BMBF during the conduct of the study and grants from GSK PLC, Janssen-Cilag AG, Pfizer Inc, Merck and Co, Inc, and Sanofi Pasteur outside the submitted work. Dr Verjans reported receiving grants from the BMBF for whole project during the conduct of the study. Dr Behrends reported grants from the BMBF during the conduct of the study; grants fromWeidenhammer-Zoebele- Stiftung and Bavarian State Ministry of Health and Care outside the submitted work; and serving on the medical advisory board of the German Society for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Dr Drosten reported receiving grants from the German Federal Ministry of Research during the conduct of the study. Dr Schroten reported receiving grants from the BMBF during the conduct of the study. No other disclosures were reported.

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