The HHS, NIH and CDC could easily solve the puzzling malaise of CFS if

they stopped overlooking the clues that suggest infectious pathogens are

the most likely cause. 

 

An official CDC report entitled, "FY 2000 Overview of the Chronic Fatigue

Syndrome Program-Centers for Disease Control and Prevention," presented

at the February 2000 Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Coordinating Committee

(CFSCC) meeting, stated:  "The peer review committee and Board of

Scientific Counselors were concerned that CFS laboratory efforts were

over-committed to gene expression analysis and strongly recommended CDC

develop a program to search for novel or poorly characterized infectious

agents in CFS patients." *

 

The HHS, NIH, CDC and the CFSCC rejected the advice of these twenty-six

scientists and research peers of the CDC.  The June 2000 GAO Report on

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome confirmed the lack of research conducted by the

NIH and CDC to find infectious pathogens in CFS patients. 

  

In October 2000, Donna Dean, Ph.D., former co-chair of the CFSCC,

organized a CFS State of the Science (S.O.S.) Meeting for the NIH and

CDC.  Dr. Dean excluded infectious disease specialists.  This is

important because future CFS research grants will be based on the

theories presented at that S.O.S. Meeting.  Additionally, without

consulting the CFSCC, Dr. Dean moved CFS from the National Institute of

Allergy and Infectious Diseases into the obscure Office of Research on

Women's Health.   No other disease has ever been housed there.  CFS is

now officially considered a woman's disease, despite the high numbers of

men who suffer from CFS.  No other disease shared by both sexes has ever

been so designated.

 

During the February 2000 CFS S.O.S. Meeting, the mycoplasma researcher

Gail Cassell, Ph.D. was the chairperson.  During that meeting, Lieutenant

Colonel Charles C. Engel, Jr., M.D., M.P.H., and Sam Donta, M.D., of the

Veterans' Administration Gulf War Illness Study, gave extensive

preliminary reports and statistics.  They reported that the Veterans'

Administration had enrolled five hundred Gulf War Veterans for an

eighteen month double blind study, using doxycycline to treat three types

of mycoplasmal infections.   These infections were found in 40% of the

Veterans whom they tested.   These are the same types of mycoplasmal

infections that are being found in civilian CFS and Fibromyalgia

patients.

 

However, the HHS, NIH and CDC omitted these percentages from the minutes

of both the February 2000 CFS S.O.S. Meeting and the February 2000 CFSCC

Meeting.  Additionally, the entire minutes of the February 2000 CFSCC

Meeting have been nearly inaccessible to the public for over a year.  The

minutes of all other CFSCC Meetings are easily accessible.  Despite our

repeated requests to correct this situation, nothing has been done.

 

These omissions are particularly disturbing in light of recent European

studies with CFS patients.  During the January 2001 America Association

for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (AACFS) Meeting in Seattle, Belgian

physician Kenny De Meirleir, MD, reported finding mycoplasmal infections

in 67% of his CFS patients.  He is successfully treating CFS patients

with long term antibiotics and his patients are not relapsing after

ending treatment. 

 

Official summaries of the AACFS meeting, presented by CFSCC member

Anthony Komaroff, MD, and David Bell, MD, failed to report Dr. De

Meirleir's mycoplasma findings or his antibiotic treatment protocol.

When we questioned Eleanor Hanna, current co-chair of the CFSCC, she

stated that she was not interested in funding research for mycoplasmal

infections in CFS patients.

 

The Mycoplasma Registry agrees with the peer review committee and Board

of Scientific Counselors.  We suggest  research on infectious pathogens

such as mycoplasma, chlamydia, rickettsia, brucella, streptococcus, and

HHV-6a, as causative agents of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia and

Gulf War Illness.

 

The HHS, NIH and CDC appear to be determined to prevent research from

being conducted for mycoplasmal infections in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

patients, despite the fact they have already funded more than five

hundred mycoplasma studies.  Their actions do indeed indicate a puzzling

malaise.

 

Sincerely,

 

Sean and Leslee Dudley

Mycoplasma Registry

 

 

 

"When the way comes to an end, then change - having changed, you pass through."

      I. Ching

 

 Bruce "Doc". Melson

http://www.docmelson.com/

http://www.docmelson.com/MedicsPlace/index.htm