Corticosteroids given during acute viral infection may trigger myalgic encephalomyelitis
Dr John Chia has observed that corticosteroids inadvertently prescribed during an acute viral infection substantially increase the risk of developing ME/CFS from that infection. From his meticulous investigations into patients' medical histories, Dr Chia discovered that hundreds of his ME/CFS patients were given corticosteroids precisely during the time that they came down with a flu-like illness, gastrointestinal upset or other viral infection. Thus there appears to be a causal equation of:
Acute infection + corticosteroids = ME/CFS
Dr Chia says one reason corticosteroids can be inadvertently prescribed during an acute enteroviral infection is because an enterovirus rash can look like hives, so if a doctor questions what the patient ate, and they happened to eat shellfish recently, the doctor may incorrectly assume the rash is a hives rash, resulting from allergy to shellfish. So the doctor will then often put the patient on a course of corticosteroids such as prednisone, as this is the normal treatment for hives.
Thus the patient has an acute enterovirus infection, and needs a strong immune response to fight this infection, yet receives immunosuppressing corticosteroids, because the viral rash was misdiagnosed as hives.
Similarly, if a patient comes down with an acute viral infection and its symptoms are suggestive of asthma, they may also be inappropriately prescribed corticosteroids, because that is how asthma is treated.
