RE: [50Moms2] WSJ - The Puzzle Of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

[Guest guest]

Two from the wall street journal and one from david tuller at the new York

times. Our own media blitz! J

Jill J.

From: 50Moms2 [mailto:50Moms2 ] On Behalf Of

Hankinson

Sent: Friday, March 04, 2011 9:23 PM

xmrv alliance

Cc: nids

Subject: [50Moms2] WSJ - The Puzzle Of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052748704005404576176823580854

478-lMyQjAxMTAxMDAwNDEwNDQyWj.html

The Puzzle of Chronic Fatigue

For 20 years, a doctor in upstate New York has been trying to prove that an

outbreak of the strange syndrome in his community was caused by a virus. Now

new evidence is reopening the case.

One snowy afternoon in October 1985, eight children from the tiny farming

community of Lyndonville, N.Y., went sledding together. Within a few weeks,

they all got sick.

Bell, the local doctor who treated the children, recalls that their

symptoms were similar to the flu: sore throats, fevers, muscle aches and

severe fatigue. After three days, they hadn't recovered. Then a week. A

month. Ninety days.

Nearly 25 years after the " Lyndonville outbreak " of chronic fatigue

syndrome, a controversy is brewing among scientists over what causes the

disease. A small-town doctor hopes his patients will help provide the

answer. WSJ's Bellini reports.

Six months after their sledding trip, the children still couldn't go back to

the lone school in town. They had trouble getting out of bed. Light gave

them a headache. Four of the eight were so sick that they were essentially

disabled, Dr. Bell recalls. Tests ruled out mono and other infections. " We

had no idea at all what it was, " he says.

Over the next two years, the mysterious illness spread throughout this rural

village of 862 people halfway between Buffalo and Rochester. It eventually

affected 214 people within a 30-mile radius, 46 of them children....