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Eightfold increase in ME/CFS incidence in the 1980s
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In the 1980s, there was a massive fivefold to eightfold increase in the global incidence of myalgic encephalomyelitis / chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS).<ref name="Dowsett2016">{{Cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160402175005/http://www.25megroup.org/Information/Medical/dowsett's/Epidemiology%20of%20ME%20(2).doc|title=The Epidemiology of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) in the UK – 1919-1999 |last=Dowsett|first=Elizabeth|authorlink=Elizabeth Dowsett|last2=Richardson|first2=John|authorlink2=John Richardson|date=|website=|archive-url=https://forums.phoenixrising.me/attachments/epidemiology-of-me-dr-elizabeth-dowsett-and-dr-john-richardson-pdf.45940/|archive-date=2016-04-02|url-status=live|access-date=2023-07-29}}</ref> This huge wave of ME/CFS cases caused major consternation at disability insurance companies such as [[UNUM]], who stood to lose enormous sums of money if they were required to support ME/CFS patients with lifetime disability support payments.<ref name="Wessely1989">{{Cite journal|title=Myalgic Encephalomyelitis — A Warning: Discussion Paper|date=Apr 1989|url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/014107688908200411|journal=Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine|volume=82|issue=4|pages=215–217 | last = Wessely | first = S | authorlink = Simon Wessely |language=en|doi=10.1177/014107688908200411|pmc=PMC1292087|pmid=2716018|issn=0141-0768}}</ref> This enormous increase in cases of ME/CFS is corroborated by multiple sources: {{quote box|text='''A 5-8 fold increment world wide, during the period 1980-1989''', since when it has remained an endemic disease with periodic epidemic potential.|source = Dr Elizabeth Dowsett and Dr John Richardson<ref name="Dowsett2016"/>}} {{Quote box|text=Our studies show that ME is endemic in the UK but with epidemic and pandemic potential and describes in detail the epidemic in the mid 1960s and the pandemic between 1980 and 1989 when there was a seven-fold increase in incidence both here and abroad.|source=Dr Elizabeth Dowsett<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.meactionuk.org.uk/Dr_B_Dowset_MRC_Consultation_Paper_Repsonse.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120620141511/http://www.meactionuk.org.uk/Dr_B_Dowset_MRC_Consultation_Paper_Repsonse.htm|title=Medical Research Council (CFS/ME Research Advisory Group) Draft Document for Public Consultation|last=Dowsett|first=Elizabeth| author-link = Elizabeth Dowsett |date=December 2002|website=ME Action UK|archive-date=2012-06-20|url-status=dead|access-date=2023-07-29}}</ref> }} {{Quote box|text='''In the US in the late 1970s and 1980s there seemed to be a remarkable rise in incidence of a condition indistinguishable from ME''', with manifestations of serious neuro-immune disease and profound incapacity, to the extent that the powerful insurance industry became alarmed. The insurance industry was concerned that, because there is no [[National Health Service]] in the US: "the field could change from an epidemiological investigation into a health insurance nightmare".|author=Professor Malcolm Hooper, Margaret Williams, E.P. Marshall<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.meactionuk.org.uk/What_is_ME_What_is_CFS.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130202192359/http://www.meactionuk.org.uk/What_is_ME_What_is_CFS.pdf|title=What is ME? What is CFS? Information for Clinicians and Lawyers|last=Hooper|first=Malcolm|authorlink=|last2=Williams|first2=Margaret|authorlink2=Margaret Williams|last3=Marshall|first3=E.P.|date=|website=ME Action UK|archive-date=2013-02-02|url-status=dead|access-date=2023-07-29}}</ref>}} {{Quote box|text=In April l994, however, one of the nation’s largest private providers of disability insurance, the UNUM Corporation, issued a press release revealing chronic fatigue syndrome claims to be the fastest-growing sector of their business. '''According to UNUM, claims for disability caused by CFS had increased 500 percent from 1989 to 1993''', a bigger increase than any other category of disability. During that five-year period, UNUM said, CFS-imposed disability had resulted in a 557 percent increase in claims by women; claims for CFS disability had risen 360 percent among men. | source= Hillary Johnson's book Osler's Web.<ref name="oslersweb">{{Cite book | last = Johnson | first = Hillary | author-link = Hillary Johnson | title = Osler’s web: Inside the labyrinth of the chronic fatigue syndrome epidemic | date = 1997 | publisher = Penguin Books | location = New York | isbn = 9780140263473 | title-link=Osler's Web}}</ref>{{Rp|655}}}} {{Quote box|text='''UNUM stands to lose millions if we do not move quickly to address this increasing problem'''.|source=UNUM Disability Insurance, in their "CFS Management Plan" (recounted to Parliament by Prof Malcolm Hooper)<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmselect/cmhealth/503/503we79.htm |title=Evidence submitted by Professor Malcolm Hooper (NICE 2007 evidence) |last=Hooper|first=Malcolm|authorlink=Malcolm Hooper |date=March 2007|website=Parliament UK|archive-url=|archive-date=|url-status=|access-date=}}</ref>}} {{quote box|text=There is also '''an apparent epidemic of new cases [of ME/CFS]'''.|author=Professor Simon Wessely<ref name="Wessely1989"/>}} == Possible causes of the 1980s explosion of ME/CFS cases == === The widespread availability of antibiotics from around the 1950s onwards === A study by Berstad et al. (2020) found that people with a history of long treatments with antibiotics during their early life have a higher prevalence of chronic fatigue and irritable bowel syndrome. The paper postulates that heavy-duty antibiotic treatment in childhood promotes the formation of bacterial biofilms in the gut, leading to intestinal dysbiosis.<ref name="Berstad2020">{{Cite journal|title=From IBS to ME – The dysbiotic march hypothesis|date=2020-07-01|url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306987720301559|journal=Medical Hypotheses|volume=140|pages=109648|last=Berstad|first=Arnold|last2=Hauso|first2=Olav|last3=Berstad|first3=Ketil|last4=Berstad|first4=Johanna E. R.|language=en|doi=10.1016/j.mehy.2020.109648|issn=0306-9877}}</ref> This dysbiosic gut may then set the stage for ME/CFS to appear later in life.{{citation needed|reason=No source links ME or CFS to antibiotic use, and chronic fatigue is a symptom of IBS and many other things|date=2023}} ==See also == ==Learn more == == References == {{Reflist}} [[Category:Epidemiology]]
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