Behan, P O, Bakheit, A M · British medical bulletin · 1991 · DOI
This review article examines postviral fatigue syndrome (also called ME/CFS), a condition that develops after viral infections and causes severe tiredness and other symptoms. The authors describe how this syndrome appears both in individual cases and in epidemic clusters worldwide, and explain why doctors historically had difficulty recognizing it until outbreaks occurred.
This early review helped establish postviral fatigue syndrome as a recognized medical condition worthy of serious investigation. For ME/CFS patients, this work supported the legitimacy of their illness as a postviral neurological syndrome rather than a psychiatric disorder, and provided a framework for understanding the condition's global occurrence and diagnostic challenges.
As a narrative review published in 1991, this study does not present new experimental data, does not establish causative mechanisms for PVFS, and does not provide quantified prevalence data or outcomes from systematic case investigations. It synthesizes existing clinical observations rather than testing specific hypotheses about pathogenesis.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
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