William Reeves

William C. Reeves, MD, MS (27 March 1943 - 3 Aug 2012) was an epidemiologist and former chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) Research Chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from 1992 to 2010. He was criticized for promoting psychological causal factors for ME/CFS, as well as for his department misspending funds appropriated for ME/CFS.

In 2010, he was removed from the CFS program and reassigned as Senior Advisor for Mental Health Surveillance in the Public Health Surveillance Program Office within the CDC. He died at his home in Atlanta on Aug. 3, 2012 at the age of 69.

Wichita clinical study
From December 2002 to July 2003 in Wichita, Kansas, US, a 2-day in-hospital clinical assessment study was conducted by Reeves and his CDC department. It was named the Wichita Clinical Study. The complete data set is available on the CDC Wichita Clinical Study Data Access website. The study enrolled 227 people and classified them into five study groups, one with CFS patients as defined by the 1994 CDC Fukuda criteria case definition, one non-fatigued control group and three other groups reporting ongoing fatigue. The main objective of the study was to characterize the physiologic status of subjects with CFS, and to apply the 1994 CFS criteria to standardized reproducible criteria.

The conclusion of the Wichita Clinical Study published in 2005 stated: "The empirical definition includes all aspects of CFS specified in the 1994 case definition and identifies persons with CFS in a precise manner that can be readily reproduced by both investigators and clinicians."

In 2006, Reeves spoke at The National Press Club as part of a chronic fatigue syndrome awareness campaign. Using results from the Wichita Clinical Study, he stated: "When we completed the medical workups of people in Wichita to confirm that they had CFS, we found that only half of those with the illness had consulted a physician for the illness. We found that only 16 percent had been diagnosed and treated for CFS...We found that a quarter of the people with CFS are either unemployed or receiving disability...We’ve documented, as have others, that the level of functional impairment in people who suffer from CFS is comparable to multiple sclerosis, AIDS, end-stage renal failure, [or] chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The disability is equivalent to that of some well-known, very severe medical conditions.”

Case definition
In 2005, the CDC published a paper outlining the Wichita Clinical Study which stated that the 1994 CDC case definition of CFS (called the empirical definition or the Fukuda criteria) was an accurate case definition. The study has garnered much criticism for not being specific enough to exclude patients which other illnesses. In particular, there is no mention of post-exertional malaise, instead they use the symptom "post-exertional fatigue." Since the study was led by Reeves, the case definition is sometimes referred to as the Reeves criteria although it has no distinction from the 1994 CDC case definition of CFS.

Notable studies related to ME/CFS

 * 1997, The Prevalence of Chronic Fatiguing Illnesses Among Adolescents in the United States (Abstract)
 * 1999, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Progression and Self-Defined Recovery: Evidence from the CDC Surveillance System (Abstract)
 * 2003, Identification of ambiguities in the 1994 chronic fatigue syndrome research case definition and recommendations for resolution (Full Text)
 * 2004, Factor analysis of symptoms among subjects with unexplained chronic fatigue: what can we learn about chronic fatigue syndrome? (Abstract)
 * 2005, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome – A clinically empirical approach to its definition and study (Full Text)
 * 2005, Psychometric properties of the CDC Symptom Inventory for assessment of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (Full Text)
 * 2006, Post-infective and chronic fatigue syndromes precipitated by viral and non-viral pathogens: Prospective cohort study (Full Text)
 * 2006, Sleep characteristics of persons with chronic fatigue syndrome and non-fatigued controls: results from a population-based study (Full Text)
 * 2006, Cognitive dysfunction relates to subjective report of mental fatigue in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (Full Text)
 * 2006, Preliminary evidence of mitochondrial dysfunction associated with post-infective fatigue after acute infection with Epstein Barr Virus (Full Text)
 * 2007, Perception versus polysomnographic assessment of sleep in CFS and non-fatigued control subjects: results from a population-based study (Full Text)
 * 2009, An evaluation of exclusionary medical/psychiatric conditions in the definition of chronic fatigue syndrome (Full Text)
 * 2009, Chronic fatigue syndrome and high allostatic load: results from a population-based case-control study in Georgia (Abstract)
 * 2011, Gynecological History in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Population-Based Case-Control Study (Full Text)
 * 2012, Prevalence, incidence, and classification of chronic fatigue syndrome in Olmsted County, Minnesota, as estimated using the Rochester Epidemiology Project.

News articles

 * 1999 Washington Post article about Dr. Reeves being retaliated against following the CFS budget misspending
 * Obituary

Talks and interviews

 * 2000 Documentary, I Remember Me, directed by Kim A. Snyder