Erik Johnson

Erik Johnson is an advocate for mold avoidance as a treatment for myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). He is the subject of the book Back from the Edge by Lisa Petrison, and has published several books of his writings on extreme mold avoidance. He is also a regular contributor to the blog Paradigm Change.

Erik became ill in the 1970's due to toxic mold and had been a student at Truckee High School which had its own outbreak of Sick Building Syndrome during the same time period of the 1984 Incline Village chronic fatigue syndrome outbreak, but he recovered in the late 1990s as a result of extreme mold avoidance. He has since spent his time working with scientists on the role of mold toxins in chronic illnesses, as well as producing educational materials.

Incline Village: Cohort for examining the outbreak
Erik was the first EBV negative patient identified by Dr. Paul Cheney, who then demanded that Erik volunteer to be a "prototype for a new syndrome" as Dr. Cheney's goal was to disprove the CDC's "CEBV Syndrome" and necessitate the creation of a replacement in which EBV was neither inherent or necessary.

By the time of the April 1987 Holmes committee meeting which convened for this purpose, Dr. Cheney had located 19 total EBV negatives, but Erik was the only one from the original Tahoe outbreak. The "19 EBV negatives" were called "The Pristine Cases" and were the core basis for the rationale behind the new syndrome.

Online presence

 * Twitter

Learn more

 * How to Practice Mould Avoidance as Outlined by Erik Johnson
 * Facebook Group - The Erik Johnson Effect
 * The Role of Toxic Mold in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome by Erik Johnson (PDF)
 * Publications by Erik Johnson