Like Kennedy, thousands of Americans believe they are victims of a stealthy

epidemic that is draining their physical strength and mental energy. Initially,
physicians attributed the mysterious afflictionn, which often strikes clusters of
people, to a mixture of depression, hypochondria and mass histeria. It has been
called the yuppie disease-because a disproportionate number of its victims have
been young, White professionals-chronic mononucleosis or, simply, fatigue
sndrome Hollywood is rumored to be plagued by the disease. Film Director Blake
Edwards strugled with it for three years. Your body starts to collapse, he says. It
was a matter of hell every day.
Decades after it was first reported, fatigue sndrome still lacks a formal name, a
cause or a cure. It saps both physical and intelectual reserves, producing
symptoms that include swollen glands and ever. Its most desvastating physical
effect is extreme exhaustion. People use similar words to describe the weakness (
Its hard to lift my coffee cup, Its like an anvil on my chest). Many sufferers
report suicidal depression and mental impairments, such as flawed memory and
inability to read.
Medical researchers remain puzzled by the sndrome. Says Epidemiologist
Jonathan Kaplan of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, who
investigated the 1985 Lake Tahoe outbreak: We dont know what causes it, and
we have a hard time diagnosing it. Still, notes Stephen Stratus, a virologist at the
National Institutes of Health (NIH), who has interviewed sufferers , you have to
start believing what theyre describing.
The symptoms and grouping of victims reminds some virologist of epidemic
neuromyasthenia, a polio-like sndrome that occurred in clusters froms California to
Iceland between 1934 and 1960. Some victims sufered tiredness for years. No
organic cause was ever discovered. The latest medical research has focused on
several viruses active in fatiguesyndrome sufferers. One frequently cited suspect is
Epstein-Barr virus, a member of the herpes family that is carried by an estimated
90% of American adults. Researchers speculate that stress, an immune-system
deficiency ore ven environmental toxins could actvate EBV, which is known to
cause most cases of infectious mononucleosis and has been linked to Burkitts
lymphoma.
But they are unsure whether EBV causes fatigue sndrome or whether its presence
merely reflects an inmune system so weakened by another organism that it no
longer keeps the virus in check. Two recent reports in the Journal of the American
Medical Association failed to link EBV to fatigue sndrome. Hardvard Researcher
Anthony Komaroff, an autor of one study, suspects that another virus, perhaps an
EBV mutant, will eventually prove to be the cause.

Of 500 Boston patients studied by Komaroffs team, 21% claimed to have sufered
extreme exhaustion for at least six months. None had pre-existing organic illnesses
that could account for their symptoms. The second J.A.M.A. paper, by Kaplans
CDC team, revealed that only 15 of 134 patients studied in the Lake Tahoe
outbreak had, severe, persistent fatigue of undertermined cause. The remainder
either had symptoms that quickly disappeared, missed Little or no work because of
illnes, or had other conditions that could have brought on fatigue.
There certainly are people who are ill and who can be disabled by this, says the
NIHs Straus. But the percentage is relatively small compared to the claims.
Unfortunately small compared to the claims. Unfortunately for the victims, doctors
have few treatments to offer. Stress reduction or sleeping pills may provide some
relief. For now, says Gidget Faubion, who runs a 9,000-member support group for
the afflicted that is based in Portland, Ore.. most sufferers must learn to accept the
severity of their condition. Says she: If you dont change your attitude, youre
going to make a suicide call to me within six months.