Sarcouncil Journal of Internal Medicine and Public Health

Abstract: LETTER TO THE EDITOR We read with interest the Gaber’s article on a retrospective analysis of long-COVID (LC) patents referred to an LC service in Northern England between November 2020 and November 2022 [Gaber, T. A, 2023]. It was found that of 17 patients aged >70 years with LC, only 7 had their fatigue associated with post-exertional malaise (PEM) [Gaber, T. A, 2023]. One of these 7 patients had a history of fibromyalgia and her PEM preceded a COVID-19 infection [Gaber, T. A, 2023]. Only 6 patients had significant comorbidity [Gaber, T. A, 2023]. A total of 482 of the 515 <70 year-old patients had PEM related to their fatigue (93.5%) [Gaber, T. A, 2023]. It was concluded that the prevailing hypotheses explaining the rarity of LC in the elderly population are due to data collection bias and/or biopsychosocial factors [Gaber, T. A, 2023]. The study is impressive, but some points require discussion.