
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, July 23, 1990                   TAG: 9007230108
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle
DATELINE: SAN FRANCISCO                                LENGTH: Medium

TEST SOUGHT TO IDENTIFY CHRONIC FATIGUE SYNDROME

Researchers at the University of California at San Francisco say they are within months of developing a blood test that will help identify victims of chronic fatigue syndrome, a major step in the fight against the mysterious illness.

Scientists recently have reported that they are convinced that, like people with AIDS, victims of chronic fatigue syndrome suffer from an immune system disorder. Researchers hope the blood test will determine who has the type of immune system problems believed to lie at the root of the disease.

"Much of the approaches we used to find the AIDS virus we are using to find this one," said prominent AIDS researcher Dr. Jay Levy, professor of medicine and research associate at UCSF's Cancer Research Institute.

Levy hopes to show that a virus is the cause of the immune system defects that mark the syndrome.

Levy's findings could provide the most significant proof to date that chronic fatigue syndrome is a legitimate malady and not a figment of the collective imagination of an estimated 3 million afflicted Americans.

Although many researchers continue to express doubts about the existence of a specific disease, a growing number of physicians and scientists believe that chronic fatigue syndrome is a definite and increasing phenomenon.

An apparent surge in the number of cases, new knowledge about the disease and attention from influential researchers have elevated the syndrome from so-called yuppie flu to what Levy describes as "the disease of the '90s."

Symptoms of the disease range from near-paralyzing fatigue to heart and brain abnormalities that can leave people debilitated for years.

The national Centers for Disease Control, which has identified the illness as "an emerging epidemic," in March began a $1 million investigation into the prevalence of chronic fatigue syndrome nationwide. The move was prompted by 1,000 phone calls a month to the CDC from doctors and patients.

Researchers, including Dr. John Dwyer, former chief of clinical immunology at the Yale University School of Medicine, estimate that 1.5 percent of the world population has the disease, including about 3.5 million in the United States.

by CNB