Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Campaign Launched

U.S. health officials stress disease is real, though treatments remain elusive

By Amanda Gardner
HealthDay Reporter

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FRIDAY, Nov. 3 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. health officials on Friday launched a major campaign to increase awareness of chronic fatigue syndrome, an illness that has labored under an intense level of controversy.

"This disease has been shrouded in a lot of mystery. Sometimes people question if it's real or not real," Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a news conference. "We hope to help patients know they have an illness that requires medical attention and help physicians be able to diagnose the illness, and be able to validate and understand the incredible suffering that many people and their families experience in this context."

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The campaign will consist of public service announcements, brochures, a "tool kit" for health-care professionals and a photo exhibit called "The Faces of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome," which will travel to cities across the country throughout 2007.

"We hope this will be a turning point in the public's awareness of the disease as well as in health-care professionals' ability to diagnose and treat it," Kim McCleary, president and CEO of the CFIDS Association of America, said at the news conference.

"This launch is so important to increasing understanding of this illness," added Dr. Nancy Klimas, of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. "Historically, lack of credibility of this illness has been a major stumbling block."

According to Dr. William Reeves, of the CDC's National Center for Infectious Diseases, the level of impairment experienced by people with chronic fatigue syndrome is comparable to that of multiple sclerosis, AIDS, end-stage renal failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

One CFS patient, Adrianne Ryan, said that sometimes taking a walk or a shower was too much, and resulted in her collapsing for weeks afterwards. Ryan is a former marathoner.

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