M.E. is an acute onset biphasic epidemic or endemic
(sporadic) infectious disease process: Both Epidemic and
Non-Epidemic cases are often preceded by a series of repeated
minor infections in a previously well patient that would suggest
either a vulnerable immune system, or an immune system subject
to overwhelming stressors such as: (a) repetitive contact with
a large number of infectious persons, (b) unusually long hours
of exhausting physical and / or intellectual work, (c) physical
traumas, (d) immediate past immunizations, particularly if
given when the patient has concurrent allergic or autoimmune
or infectious disease or if the patient is leaving for a third world
country within three weeks of receiving the immunization, (e)
epidemic disease cases whose onset and periodicity appear to
occur cyclically in a susceptible population, (f) the effect of
travel, as in exposure to a new subset of virulent infections,
or (g) the effects of starvation diets. (It should be noted that
subsets c, d, e, f and g are all stressors associated with decreased
immune adaptability plus an associated infection with an
Byron Marshall Hyde MD
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appropriate neurovascular infectious virus or other infectious
agent. This may be due either to an immediate preexisting
infectious disease or to a closely following infection, either of
which may or may not be recognized.)
