The Specialist Network for Infections of the NUM Study Network establishes a new working group on post-infectious diseases

In December 2025, the Network of University Medicine (NUM) announced the establishment of a new working group on post-infectious diseases. The working group is part of the Specialist Network for Infections, which is responsible within the NUM Study Network for researching infectious diseases.

The new working group aims at specifically researching conditions that develop following an infectious disease. This also includes conditions such as Long COVID and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS).

The plan is to not only support patients during the acute infection but provide follow-ups over a longer period of time after they have recovered. This way, potential long-term consequences can be detected and causal relationships between the initial infection and symptoms occurring later in time can be examined.

The research is based on various sources of information: clinical data, patient-reported treatment outcomes and biological samples. The aim is to find out, among other things, how often post-infectious diseases occur, who is particularly at risk and which biomarkers might be relevant in this context. The results of this research will inform the testing of new treatment approaches and preventive measures.

The working group is open to interested researchers from various disciplines and is intended to grow on an interdisciplinary basis across different locations.