Tapanui Flu

Tapanui Flu is a colloquial and outdated name used in New Zealand for myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), coined after an outbreak occurred in the Tapanui area in the early 1980s. Though sometimes still used informally, it has been replaced in the medical community with the terms: myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), postviral fatigue syndrome (PVFS), Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS) and/or chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).

The term, Tapanui Flu, originated from a 1984 outbreak in the small, rural town of Tapanui, in West Otago in New Zealand's South Island, close to the boundary with Southland region. The late Tapanui GP Peter Snow was instrumental in identifying this outbreak.