Prävalenz und gesellschaftliche Kosten von Long COVID und ME/CFS in Deutschland: Ergebnisse einer neuen Datenmodellierung

Jörg Heydecke presented the results of a recently published data model, released jointly by the ME/CFS Research Foundation and Risklayer. In a first-of-its-kind, both organisations underwent a holistic attempt at modelling the number of people living with either ME/CFS or Long COVID and the costs arising from these burdensome diseases in Germany and made the results publicly available. For the five-year period between 2020 and 2024, Long COVID and ME/CFS cost Germany more than €250 billion. In 2024 alone, Long COVID and ME/CFS cost €63.1 billion, equating to 1.5% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) the same year. Using an innovative approach, by combing existing data and findings from literature with novel data from a model specifically developed for this report, the authors show that, at the end of 2024, 871,086 people in Germany were likely living with Long COVID, while an additional 650,183 people were living with ME/CFS (the latter includes ME/CFS diagnosed as a result of COVID-19/Long COVID). In total, more than 1.5 million people in Germany were living with either Long COVID or ME/CFS at the end of 2024.