It's True: People with ME/CFS Do Get Infections More Easily

[Cort]

They said people with ME/CFS were just more sensitive to their bodies or were hypochondriac's or whatever but it's not true. People with ME/CFS who report they have a cold actually have a cold - and they get more upper respiratory infections (URI's) than normal. This is the second time this finding was found but this time they actually swabbed the patients and found, yes - they were suffering from an infection.

[fright] [/fright][fright]

[/fright] That's an intriguing finding given the recent breakthrough in easily determining the number of infections we've been exposed to...Maybe people with ME/CFS do get more infections than the normal bear. If they do that would indicate a problem probably in the innate immune system is present (no!).

• http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21641846.2015.1033271#.VXXejc9Viko

Background: Previous research has suggested that chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) patients report more upper respiratory tract illnesses (URTIs) than controls.

Aims: The present study aimed to replicate and extend this research. Method: A prospective study of the incidence of URTIs was conducted. This was similar to previous work involving diary studies but also included objective measures of illness severity (e.g. nasal secretion; sub-lingual temperature) and infection (virus isolation from nasal swabs and antibody changes). Fifty-seven patients with CFS, diagnosed according to the 1994 CDC criteria, were recruited randomly from a volunteer panel compiled of patients who had attended the Cardiff CFS outpatient clinic. A further 57 individuals without CFS were recruited from a general population research panel.

Results: The results confirmed that CFS patients report more upper respiratory virus infections and the virological results showed that this was not due to a reporting bias but reflected greater susceptibility to infection.

Conclusions: This increased susceptibility to infection in the CFS group can account for the increased reporting of URTIs found in this and previous studies.

 

[Patty May]

I not only catch every bug you can imagine, but I'm always sicker and ill a lot longer. Lucky me!!

 

[Tammy7]

I'm the opposite and there are a number of people with CFS/ME who hardly ever catch a cold or the flu. My immunologist told me when I start catching colds again that it would be a good sign. Don't know the physiology behind this. May have a correlation with whether one has TH1 dominance or TH2 dominance.............but really don't know.

 

[Cort]

I not only catch every bug you can imagine, but I'm always sicker and ill a lot longer. Lucky me!!

If fitting the pattern is any consolation at all at least you fit it

 

[Cort]

I'm the opposite and there are a number of people with CFS/ME who hardly ever catch a cold or the flu. My immunologist told me when I start catching colds again that it would be a good sign. Don't know the physiology behind this. May have a correlation with whether one has TH1 dominance or TH2 dominance.............but really don't know.

Yes some people say they never catch colds. Maybe that branch of their immune system is roaring away...