TOO many people are ill and can鈥檛 be properly treated. They have 鈥渇unctional disorders鈥� like myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), aka chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), that are life-altering and often disabling, but with unclear causes. Doctors struggle to find anything out of the ordinary in blood tests and other investigations. All they can do is try to relieve symptoms.
Now, tens of millions have developed a functional disorder at the same time: long covid. This can set in after infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus and last for months or even years. Despite being initially dismissed by many doctors, people with long covid have campaigned for the illness to be recognised and studied.
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鈥淛ust because a condition is unexplained, it doesn鈥檛 mean it is unexplainable鈥�
Researchers have now identified possible underlying causes, and are devising and testing treatments, some of which may be in use this year. This will have felt like a protracted wait for many of those with long covid, but is still an incredibly fast turnaround.
Other functional disorders need the same attention. In some cases, like ME/CFS, we have clues to what is going on, even if that hasn鈥檛 yet led to treatments. Others, like fibromyalgia, a condition of widespread pain, are more mysterious. Diagnoses may be umbrella descriptions, hiding a range of physical goings-on that manifest as similar symptoms.
But 鈥渦nexplained鈥� doesn鈥檛 mean 鈥渦nexplainable鈥�. There is evidence many conditions can be traced back to infections with mild initial symptoms. Long covid isn鈥檛 the only post-viral condition: for example, there is also a . Multiple sclerosis, a degenerative nervous system condition, seems almost exclusively to arise in people infected with the Epstein-Barr virus behind glandular fever, or 鈥渕ono鈥�.
Functional disorders have been neglected for too long, despite their toll on people鈥檚 well-being and society. The research momentum that has built up around long covid offers hope to the millions of people who have it, but also to millions with other functional disorders. Long covid looks like proof that these conditions, if they are pursued with enough determination and rigour, can be understood and properly treated.
