Making Invisible Illnesses Visible: Recognizing and Responding to Infection Associated Chronic Conditions 2026 Iskander and Haridopolos

[Peter T]

I personally believe my onset was triggered by an infection as I had no gap between my acute glandular fever (mono) episode with the EBV virus confirmed and the onset of my ME. This idea was reinforced by a major relapse triggered by seasonal flue (virus not confirmed). However in both my belief is based of proximity in time which is not proof of causation. Further most viral infections, except perhaps Covid, are not generally confirmed by formal testing.

It may be until we have an understanding of the underlying biology we will not be able say what triggers/causes ME/CFS.

 

[nataliezzz]

I would be curious to know what percent of people who do not believe they had infectious onset have a theory about what their trigger was. It seems no known trigger is by far the most common, not any of the possible triggers you listed. A small percentage of people happening to have an infection correspond with another life event would be totally believable.

If you're on Twitter, you can ask Scott Daniska @scott_scientist (his ME/CFS was triggered by a hydrazine exposure in a chemistry lab) - he's conducted some polls on Facebook and he said that based on these ~60% of people with non-infectious onsets were "affirmative cases" as he calls them - i.e. identify a clear non-infectious trigger. (I think he makes a good point about some people with non-infectious onsets not identifying with the term ME/CFS and instead other terms due to the constant "post-infectious illness" messaging around ME/CFS, especially if they had gradual/insidious onsets and/or have hypermobility e.g - I've heard people say that PEM can be a feature of hEDS and therefore they have hEDS and not ME/CFS, e.g.)



This is the only paper I could find that reported on % of patients with different types of non-infectious triggers where CCC/ICC/IOM criteria were used rather than Fukuda/CDC (I'm guessing "ICM" is supposed to say ICC?) (again, perhaps there is some bias for patients with infectious onsets to join ME/CFS associations - rather than their EDS or fibromyalgia association, e.g.)
Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS): A preliminary survey among patients in Switzerland

Participants were consenting ME/CFS patients aged 18 and older and recruited through the largest Swiss ME/CFS association, which counted over 320 members at the start of the study.

Patients who received an ME/CFS diagnosis from health personnel were included in the study. In addition, the study team conducted a quality control in order to ensure reported symptoms did fit the criteria of any of the three case-definitions (CCC, ICM or IOM). Patients not having been diagnosed for ME/CFS by physicians and/or not fulfilling either of the three case definitions for ME/CFS were not included into this study.

Hundred-fifty-two participants (90%) could recall an associative event with the start of their disease (Table 3). The majority of these patients (N = 117; 69.2%) recalled an infectious disease (i.e. febrile illness) as the most prevalent association prior the onset of ME/CFS.

Among the 117 patients stating infectious diseases as an onset for ME/CFS, 69 (59%) mentioned Epstein-Barr-virus (EBV). Of these, 46 had a confirmed clinical disease, whereas 23 had a sub-clinical infection (antibodies for EBV found during routine blood test; ME/CFS examination). Viral diseases were mentioned by the majority of participants (N = 91; 77.8%), followed by respiratory infections (N = 39; 33.3%), Gastro-intestinal infections including hepatitis (N = 18; 15.4%), tick-borne diseases (N = 19; 16.2%) and miscellaneous infections (N = 20; 17.1%). Table 4 shows the detailed diseases reported by the patients.

Fifty-nine patients (38.8%) recalled a single event as the start of ME/CFS, whereas a combination of events happening around the same time, was stated by 93 participants (61.2%). Among the single associative events, the majority reported infectious diseases (N = 43; 72.9%). Less often recalled were: an episode with perception of “extreme stress” (N = 5; 8.5%), a surgical procedure (N = 2; 3.4%), emotional trauma (N = 1; 1.7%) and a visit abroad (N = 1; 1.7%). Seven (11.9%) patients stated “other” causes as a single event (e.g. vaccination; cancer treatment). Depression and physical trauma were never stated as a single event.

Two, three and more than three coinciding events were reported by 56 (36.8%), 23 (15.1%) and 14 (9.2%) of the participants, respectively. Among this sub-group of multiple associative events, infectious diseases were reported by 75 (80.6%) of the patients. Other events (pooled into the category “other”) included three cancer (mamma carcinoma, intestinal cancer); 13 vaccinations; two drug induced (mephloquine, long term fluorchinolones); one acute urinary retention; one mitochondriopathy; three laboratory incidents (exposure to mercury and nitrous oxide); one surgical heart catheter implant with subsequent complications).

Sixteen patients mentioned vaccines to have been associated with the onset of ME/CFS. It included: six Hepatitis B (inoculation after year 2000); three pox; one tick-borne encephalitis; two influenza; one swine flu; one typhus; one tetanus; one Yellow fever given at the same time as meningococcus). Four patients stated vaccines as the perceived sole event linked to the onset of ME/CFS (three Hepatitis B, one simultaneous Yellow Fever and Meningococcus vaccination).

A trip abroad reported as association with the onset of ME/CFS included destinations to Africa, South-East Asia, Central Asia, South-America, and Northern Australia.

 

[nataliezzz]

A small percentage of people happening to have an infection correspond with another life event would be totally believable.

We are culturally hell-bent on defining most infections as acute - boundaried by symptoms and timeframes and, whenever possible, defined by objectively measured biomarkers or lab results.

I would be much more likely to consider the plausibility of the "all these people who report clear non-infectious triggers may have actually had an (asymptomatic) infection at the same time" if there was some evidence that the pathophysiology of ME/CFS is in any way directly related to pathogens (e.g. strong evidence of viral/bacterial persistence driving symptoms e.g.) - although even with that, it would still seem more plausible to me to posit some sort of diverse triggers leading to pathogen reactivation type theory because the coincidental (asymptomatic) infection hypothesis still seems a bit too far-fetched to me. Anyways, without evidence that pathogens are directly implicated in the pathophysiology of ME/CFS, it seems like the much more logical interpretation that infection is the most common trigger for ME/CFS, but just one of many possible triggers.