US CDC wants CFS taken seriously

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has launched a campaign to raise awareness about chronic fatigue syndrome among doctors and patients. The agency's initiative comes amid skepticism from many in the US medical profession that the disease exists and perceived indifference from drugmakers.

The medical community and drugmakers are limited by the difficulty in identifying the cause of the syndrome. Nancy Klimas, a researcher at the university of Miami University, in Florida, USA, told the WebMD on-line medical magazine that "there's no diagnostic test, no blood test." However, the CDC cites recent studies which found abnormalities in the human body's autonomic nervous system and possible genetic markers that may cause the body to overreact to stress.