Fatigue is a sign of many diseases and conditions. It regularly accompanies illness, but also recovery from illness, and it is precisely fatigue that shows us how recovery is progressing and whether you need medical help. Patients describe fatigue as a lack of strength and energy and as general weakness, but also as a loss of interest. If you have unexplained, long-lasting fatigue, you should see a doctor.
Fatigue is medically significant if it lasts a long time (weeks or months), if it persists after adequate rest and despite enough sleep, if it comes on after little exertion and when it disrupts our usual daily routine. Fatigue is accompanied by a feeling of dullness, difficulty concentrating and memory problems, and often by a loss of interest in intimacy. Contact your doctor when pain and fatigue get progressively worse, when you tire quickly and feel short of breath during ordinary activities or exercise, and when new symptoms develop, such as tingling, weakness or loss of balance – in other words, when the complaints persist even though several weeks or months have passed. Alongside chronic fatigue, further warning signs include loss of sleep, swollen joints, sweating, skin changes, and problems with vision, bowel movements and passing urine.
Prolonged fatigue accompanies a number of viral and bacterial infections, for example COVID-19, flu, CMV and EBV, and many others. Chronic fatigue after a COVID infection occurs not only in patients with more severe illness, but also in those with milder illness, and even in those whose infection was very mild and went unnoticed, with antibodies found in the body only later. In these cases, hydration (drinking plenty of fluids), a varied diet rich in vitamins and minerals, and adequate rest are recommended. General preventive measures are also extremely important, such as wearing face masks properly, hand hygiene, keeping your distance and airing rooms, because only vaccination will make it possible to bring the spread of COVID-19 seriously under control.
