Putting an accurate estimate of PASC cases together seems like an impossible task at this point. The overlap in symptomatology between PASC and ME/CFS is significant and often indistinguishable. If you consider that over a million people in the US were developing ME/CFS even before Covid, and the fact that virtually everyone has now had Covid, I’d venture to guess that many PASC diagnoses may simply represent patients who would have/are developing ME/CFS for all the reasons that existed before Covid. Many ME/CFS cases are not even tied to post-infection (such as my own). Good luck to anyone who wants to tackle this conundrum!
Putting an accurate estimate of PASC cases together seems like an impossible task at this point. The overlap in symptomatology between PASC and ME/CFS is significant and often indistinguishable. If you consider that over a million people in the US were developing ME/CFS even before Covid, and the fact that virtually everyone has now had Covid, I’d venture to guess that many PASC diagnoses may simply represent patients who would have/are developing ME/CFS for all the reasons that existed before Covid. Many ME/CFS cases are not even tied to post-infection (such as my own). Good luck to anyone who wants to tackle this conundrum!
Niles Fox, Doctorate of molecular pathology, recovered (largely) ME/CFS patient, ME/CFS/PASC patient advocate.
Yes, very true. I think the overly broad definition of PASC has made it into a somewhat useless diagnosis.