Here's Why

Mutton dressed as Lamb

I'm told that while I was out at 2SER on Thursday night, every TV news station carried a video bite of Professor
Llloyd's hypothesis that Chronic Fatigue Sydnrome (and Fibromyalgia) is possibly caused by brain injury after glandular fever or similar virus. Apparently the footage showed patients being brain scanned, and the suggestion that they'd found the cause. The story is all over the ABC and other sites, but there's nothing new that I could see.

Now, its been known since the 1990's that Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (and Fibromyalgia) happens to some people after an Epstein Barr Virus or "mononucleosis" infection (or Ross River fever or Q Fever), but that not everybody who is infected gets CFS and not every CFS sufferer has been infected with Epstein Barr virus. The brain scans are planned for the future, they haven't been performed yet, after all this time. The TV footage seemed to be misleading. So what's new?

I've sent a list of questions that the press release and the new research paper didn't answer to the media liason at UNSW. The media liason told me he'd pass my questions on to the Professor, but I was never sent any answers.

It would be amazing to see research that goes one step beyond confirming every year that CFS is not a delusion.

About the author: Ian Woolf lives in Sydney, has a degree in Applied Science, worked as a solar astronomer, software engineer, systems programmer, webmaster, research assistant, Cisco CCNA tutor, Physics laboratory demonstrator, Computational Theory lecturer, and subject coordinator; while changing his career to freelance writing and broadcasting. Listen to Ian on the Diffusion radio science show on radio 2SER 107.3FM Monday at 6:30pm in Sydney or streaming audio on www.2ser.com, or listen to the Diffusion podcasts. You should follow me on twitter, here