CFS - History of an Old Disease With Many Aliases

Chronic Fatigue-like illnesses have been described in medical literature for over a century-and-a-half.  The disease has went through many different name changes since then:

• In 1751, Manningham described a syndrome of low-grade fever, weariness throughout the body, and pains.
• 1760 - Dr. Snow described a new illness in West Otago, New Zealand as Tapanui flu.
• 1816 - Fibromyalgia was first described by Dr. William Balfour as rheumatism.
• In 1860, Dr. George Beard identified a syndrome with similarities to CFS that he called Neurasthenia.
• In 1861, Florence Nightingale became ill with CFS symptoms.
• 1884 - Sigmund Freud advocated cocaine use to alleviate chronic fatigue.
• 1904 - William Weichardt described that CFS had an etiological agent.
• In 1936, an outbreak occurred in a Wisconsin Convent.  The name Encephalitis was given to the condition.
• 1937 - An outbreak occurred in two Swiss towns, that were described as abortive poliomyelitis..
• In 1938 Dr. Alexander Gillam described an outbreak that occurred in 1934 at Los Angeles County hospital affecting all or most of its nurses and doctors resembling symptoms of today's description of Chronic Fatigue Syndrom.  Dr. Alexander Gillam gave the syndrome the name of atypical poliomyelitis.
• 1915 - The AMA Journal referred to neurasthenia as an adrenal disorder.
• 1939 - 73 Swiss soliders were given the diagnosis of abortive poliomyelitis.
• 1948 - Outbreak at Akureyri Iceland.
• In 1949-1951 over 800 people in Adelaide, Australia became ill with symptoms resembling the atypical poliomyelitis described by Dr. Alexander Gillam.
• 1955 - An outbreak at the Royal Free Hospital in England, the first reference made to a neuroimmune condition with a proposed name of Royal Free Disease.
• 1964 - A theory arose that CFS was chronic brucellosis.
• In 1970, McEvedy and Beard proposed the name benign myalgic encephalomyelitis and mass hysteria.
• 1982 - Lake Tahoe Outbreak - A large number of persons fell ill, with a mystery illness, and many never recovered.  Hippocrates Magazine proposed the name "Raggedy Ann Syndrome".
• 1983 - The term Chronic Eppstein-Barr virus was used
• 1986 - The Term Yuppie Flu was coined
• 1988 - The term Chronic Fatigue Syndrome became widely accepted.
• 1989 - 1990 - Edmonton Outbreak - Over 600 people reported symptoms resembling CFS, beginning in the fall of 1989.  Several cases were traced back to two student residences at the University of Alberta which began with a flu like illness at the beginning of the fall semester, where some blood abnormalities were noted.
• 1990 - Researchers announced they found DNA sequences of a retrovirus in CFS patients, and presented their findings in Kyoto.
• 1996 - CFS was described as a neuropsychiatric disorder.  
• 2003 - A Canadian panel developed diagnostic criteria for CFS.
• In 2006, the CDC recognized CFS as a serious illness
• 2007 - Monterrey Outbreak - Several Catholic nuns fell ill with CFS in Monterrey, Mexico.  The CDC was enlisted to analyze the blood by Mexican health officials, but they declined.  Researchers at Guadalajara University noted abnormalities in the RNASE-L pathway.

A CFS/ME/FM Timeline - We Knew About A Retrovirus All Along!

The linkage of CFS/ME to a retrovirus is noting new and suspicion began to grow that it was the case in Fibromyalgia as well.  The first documented findings that a retrovirus might be responsible for CFS/ME surfaced around 1985. The timeline of findings begins in 1985.

• 1985 - Four out of 5 samples sent by Dr. Dan Peterson from the Lake Tahoe Outbreak tested positive for an HTLV-1 like virus.  Incredible disruptions were noted in flow cytometry of peripheral mononuclear cells producing grossly unbalanced CD4/CD8 ratios - showing CD8 cell depletion.  Scatter patterns were also noted in the flow cytometry which were previously only seen in HIV/AIDS infections.
• 1986 - Dr. Robert Gallo - the co-discoverer of the HIV virus remarked after analyzing blood samples from the Lake Tahoe outbreak the presence of HHV-6A, in a manner consistent with an opportunistic infection in HIV patients.
• 1988 - MRI brain scans showed abnormalities similar to HIV cases.
• 1991 - Dr. Elaine DeFreitas published her findings that genetic material of a virus similar to HTLV-I had been found in a similar proportion of patients to the current study at the Whittemore-Peterson Institute, though no virus had yet been isolated.
• 1992 - The CDC and Dr. James Gow would go on to state that the findings of Dr. Elaine DeFreitas could not be replicated.
• 1994 - The CDC dismissed further findings of immune disturbances such as high RNASE-L activity and CD8 depletion.
• 1995 - Research began to surface in CDC and NIH funded studies about pain processing abnormalities in Fibromyalgia - notably elevated substance P, and high Glutamate.  These studies would lead researchers to look for a neurological cause - leading to the theory that the "Volume control" is turned up too high in the brain's pain processing areas - something that certain cytokines are shown to do.
• 1997 - Up-regulation of the RNASE-L pathway is demonstrated in another study.
• 2001 - A study noted the shift in redox state in CFS patients just like in HIV.  The Redox shift leads to P450 decoupling from NADPH depletion, perhaps explaining the multiple drug and environmental sensitivities CFS/ME and Fibromyalgia patients experience.  Of note is the Cytochrome P450 enzymes are responsible for detoxifying drugs and environmental toxins.
• 2007 - The XMRV virus is discovered for the first time in humans in Prostrate Cancer patients who have a rare genetic mutation.
• 2009 - The Whittemore-Peterson publishes the discovery of XMRV as a likely cause of ME/CFS, showing the virus able to replicate and infect healthy blood cells.