Prevalence and societal costs of Long COVID and ME/CFS in GermanyJörg Heydecke from the ME/CFS Research Foundation is guest at the HCHE Research Seminar
13 April 2026, 4:00 pm
Photo: ME/CFS Research Foundation
As part of the HCHE Research Seminar, Jörg Heydecke from the ME/CFS Research Foundation (Hamburg) presents a model for estimating the prevalence and societal costs of Long COVID and ME/CFS in Germany.
The study, released jointly by the ME/CFS Research Foundation and Risklayer, is a first-of-its-kind 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. The report looks at the five-year period between 2020 and 2024 and finds that both diseases created a substantial societal burden. More than 1.5 million patients across both diseases generate societal cost of more than 60 billion per year.
Jörg Heydecke will present his research results together with Johannes Brand from Risklayer (Karlsruhe) at the HCHE Research Seminar on 13 April 2026 in Hamburg.
The HCHE Research Seminar is a forum for HCHE members and guests. Guest researchers invited present their current health economics research. The seminar takes place on selected Mondays from 16:00 to 17:15 pm. The full program can be found here.
