quotes: The pandemic has laid bare a blind spot in epidemiology and surveillance data systems for infectious diseases. Nearly all surveillance data systems are built on the archaic, and now obsolete, notion that accounting for cases, hospitalization, and death in the acute phase is sufficient to capture the health burden of the infection. This approach does not account for the burden of long-term health loss due to infectious illnesses, which obscures their true toll. ... Long Covid will have wide-reaching effects that are yet to be fully appreciated. In addition to the prototypical form of Long Covid, SARS-CoV-2 infection increases the risk of a wide array of chronic diseases and will contribute to a rise in the burden of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, neurologic impairment, and autoimmune conditions. This will increase demand on health systems and raise health care costs, and their impact may take many years to fully manifest. ... Governments and funding agencies should support a comprehensive portfolio of research in infection-associated chronic illnesses. Although SARS-CoV-2 can cause chronic disease, it is not alone. Influenza virus, Epstein-Barr virus, Ebola virus, polio virus, and many others also have long-term health effects (14, 15). Myalgic encephalomyelitis/ chronic fatigue syndrome is also likely triggered by infection. However, how infectious agents cause chronic disease is not fully understood, and research in this area has been disproportionately underfunded relative to the burden of long-term disability and disease caused by infections. An interdisciplinary research agenda is essential to address knowledge gaps about such illnesses. This effort will not only provide insights into infection-associated chronic illnesses similar to Long Covid but also inform strategies to reduce the burden of chronic health loss from future pandemics. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adl0867
