Article Index

The Disease of a Thousand Names

Some of the many names for the illness Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) over more than 100 years are:

atypical poliomyelitis, Iceland disease, Akureyi disease, Coventry disease, Tapanui flu, Otago mystery disease, Royal Free disease, Lake Tahoe mystery disease, Lyndonville chronic mononucleosis, the English disease, neuromyasthenia, neurasthenia, epidemic neuromyasthenia, myalgic encephalomyelitis, muscular rheumatism, Da Costa's syndrome, Beard's disease, Ramsey's disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, La Spasmophilie, Raggedy Ann Syndrome, post-viral fatigue syndrome, persistent viral fatigue syndrome, chronic immune activation syndrome, chronic immune dysfunction syndrome, low natural killer cell syndrome, allergic fatigue syndrome, chronic fatigue and immune dysfunction syndrome, Naxalone-reversible monocyte dysfunction syndrome, chronic Epstein-Barr virus syndrome, chronic mononucleosis-like syndrome, Yuppie flu, Yuppie plague.

In early 2015 another name was suggested in the report by the Institue of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences: Systemic Exertional Intolerance Disease (SEID).