We can agree with a microbiologist at Rutgers that “this is an aspect of long COVID that is not talked about a lot,” in reference to the coinfections that travel with COVID 19. This news comes as no surprise to functional medicine doctors who have been treating Lyme coinfections for decades, and was appreciated early in the COVID epidemic. Frequent patients were showing up with EBV (mononucleosis) type symptoms and clear lab indicators of active infection. Hopefully, others will listen to the Rutgers microbiologist’s and give more attention to this issue.
As the study notes, we want answers for how to help approximately 400 million people worldwide suffering from Long COVID. Functional medicine has already been helping so many as we recognize multiple different subtypes of post-COVID syndromes. We see mast cell activation, micro-clotting, autoimmunity, gut dysbiosis, limbic dysregulation and, as this paper reports, coinfections.
I have to take a slow deep breath as I read papers like this one. We could have told the mainstream this already, but at least they are now waking up to announce these findings. I appreciate late comers to the game, regardless of their lateness. Let’s give them their moment in the spotlight.
They listed both potential acute infections (capable of synergizing with COVID to cause long COVID symptoms) and reactivation of chronic infections:
“acute infections by respiratory or other pathogens (e.g. influenza virus, respiratory syncytial virus [RSV], measles virus, adenovirus, Staphylococcus aureus, streptococci, Hemophilus spp., Moraxella spp., Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas, Aspergillus).
chronic infections (e.g. human immunodeficiency virus [HIV], cytomegalovirus [CMV], tuberculosis) and reactivation of latent infections (e.g. EBV, varicella zoster virus [VZV], or latent tuberculosis).”
We look forward to further research into these coinfections with COVID. In the meantime, we will continue to test and treat these issues, as well as optimizing our patient’s immunity with detoxification and nutritional optimization. That is how functional medicine is working to restore healthier, more abundant lives.
Original Article:
Timothy J Henrich, Christopher P Montgomery, Joerg Graf, Nahed Ismail, Sindhu Mohandas, Mehul S Suthar, Hassan Brim, John M Coffin, Aayush Pagaria, Jeisac Guzmán Rivera, Urmila Vudali, Paul Keim, Guangming Zhong, Rebecca McGrath, Belinda Edwards, Adolfo García-Sastre, Maria Laura Gennaro. The role of co-infection in the pathogenesis of acute SARS-CoV-2 infection and development of post-acute sequelae: A perspective. eLife, 2025; 14 DOI: 10.7554/eLife.106308
Thanks to Science Daily:
Rutgers University. “Researchers identify viral suspects that could be fueling long COVID.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 14 December 2025. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/12/251214100911.htm>.
Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.
Dr. Eric Potter graduated from Vanderbilt Medical School and then went on to specialize in internal medicine (adult) and pediatric care, spending significant time and effort in growing his medical understanding while caring for patients from all walks of life.
