Irving Spurr

Irving Spurr, MD, was a General Practitioner in the UK. He was Chairman of The John Richardson Group. He had extensive experience with enteroviruses and their implication with ME/CFS.

He "uses immunogloulin treatment extensively and has not done a RCT [randomized controlled trial] because he does not believe it is ethical to not offer it to clients. There are apparently problems with the use of IVIG in the UK and so he used IM."

Dr Spurr wrote a treatise on what he called, EvME, i.e., ME caused by persistent enteroviruses, entitled, Enteroviral Myalgic Encephalomyelitis - EvME:

"Myalgic Encephalomyelitis is recognised by the WHO as a neurological disease. It is well annotated in medical literature, from the Polio epidemics in 1930s-40s [Gilliam]. Defined by Melvin Ramsay in the 1950s - Royal Free Disease and in the 1960s by Luis Leon Sotomayor. In 1970 the BMA published a paper by two psychiatrists. Dr C P McEvedy and Dr A W Beard which concluded that the Royal Free outbreak was largely due to hysteria. The effect on medical opinion was far reaching and still prevails. The effect on patients was and remains catastrophic.

The enteroviruses, ubiquitous in nature, are responsible for a variety of human diseases ranging from mild gastroenteritis to fulminating multi-organ failure. They are the cause of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and it is no surprise that this disease has multi-organ involvement with protean manifestation.

Enterovirus genus is comprised of Polioviruses, Coxsackieviruses A&B, Echoviruses and E71 [Enterovirus 71]. They are members of the Picornaviridea family. The Picorna family is marked by its extremely small size. The virion is a naked icosahedron about 30 nm in diameter. The genome is comprised of single-stranded monopartite RNA. While Poliomyelitis has virtually been eradicated in the Western world, others of the genera have filled the vacuum so created [E71]. Enteroviruses, as the name implies, persist in the gut and are remarkably resistant to its harsh conditions. They mutate slowly, en passage, to re-challenge host resistance; pandemics occurring every 2-4 years. Diseases can range from relatively minor gastrointestinal upset to paralysis, meningitis, encephalitis, cardiac damage and birth defects. Sub clinical and mild infections are by the far most common."

Talks and interviews

 * 2008, Speaker at the 3rd Invest in ME International ME Conference on A GP’s Experiences of Diagnosis and Treatments of ME/CFS DVD available