By Llewellyn King

Published November 21, 2011 – 9:13 pm

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As AIDS was initially, CFS is haunted by fear, stigma and ignorance. It is misdiagnosed and often its victims are abused, thrown out of their families, and live in squalor and pain with little hope. They despair that they cannot convince doctors, their families or their loved ones that they are, in fact, sick.

There is no cure for CFS, just a lot of conflicting theory. There is nothing on the pharmacists' shelves to relieve their suffering. Nothing.

There are also powerful economic and institutional forces that have conspired to keep CFS in the shadow; in that world of anguish, where the victims feel they are to blame because they are a burden to those who love them. The costs of care are crushing.

What is known is that CFS is a disease of the immune system; that it is reported among women by 3-to-1; that it has no cure — no certain day when the monster will leave the sick bed. It ebbs and flows in cycles — good days and bad days, good years and bad years. People who suffer say it confiscates their lives. There are terrible periods when one is so sick that one is bedridden for months or years.

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http://www.whchronicle.com/2011/11/chronic-fatigue-syndrome-the-silent-suffering/