Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) is the leading national public health institute of the United States.

CDC History with CFS
In the past, patients, advocates, and physicians affiliated with ME/CFS have had a cautious, and at times fractured, relationship with the CDC. After the 1984 Incline Village chronic fatigue syndrome outbreak of ME/CFS, the CDC was apathetic and, at times, dismissive to the clinical findings of Dr. Daniel Peterson and the afflicted patients. Hillary Johnson wrote her renowned book, Osler's Web, about this frustrating period. It was during this time the CDC named the illness the trivializing name chronic fatigue syndrome.

In 1986, a fake letter posted on a CDC bulletin board was discovered and copied by Hillary Johnson in her book, illustrating the belittling attitude CDC staff had towards the patient population.

Notable studies

 * CDC Multi-site Clinical Assessment of CFS

PACE Trial
Former CDC head William Reeves commented on the CDC's involvement in the PACE trial:

"The collaboration with Peter White is largely because Peter White came to us when the national health service in the UK was trying to design its program and formulate recommendations about what the health service in the UK should do. We've consulted with them as far as our ideas and our expertise, and we collaborate with Dr. White on the PACE trial. He's an unusually intelligent individual-you've read some of his comments on some of our articles-whom we enjoy sparring with. He is an expert on autonomic nervous system function and he's highly instrumental in all of the hurdles, both with patients with the government and with physicians, in trying to put together, given the current state of knowledge, a national program."

Notable people

 * Elizabeth Unger
 * William Reeves

Online presence

 * Web site
 * CFS web site section
 * Twitter
 * 2007 Commercial for ME/CFS by CDC