CFS CFS History and Nomenclature 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What was the original nickname given to CFS following an outbreak in Incline Village, Nevada in the 1980s?
- Yuppie flu (Correct answer)
- Nevada fever
- Chronic Epstein-Barr disease
- Post-viral syndrome
Correct answer: Yuppie flu
The dismissive nickname 'yuppie flu' was applied after the 1984–1985 Incline Village outbreak, as it appeared to affect primarily young, affluent professionals.
Question 2: What was the first official name given to what we now call CFS by the CDC in 1988?
- Myalgic encephalomyelitis
- Chronic Epstein-Barr virus syndrome
- Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) (Correct answer)
- Post-viral fatigue syndrome
Correct answer: Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)
The CDC coined the term 'chronic fatigue syndrome' in 1988, which was a working name that has since been criticized for trivializing the severity of the illness.
Question 3: What does 'ME' stand for in the combined term ME/CFS?
- Multisystem exhaustion
- Myalgic encephalomyelitis (Correct answer)
- Metabolic encephalopathy
- Multiple enzyme deficiency
Correct answer: Myalgic encephalomyelitis
ME stands for myalgic encephalomyelitis, a term that predates CFS and emphasizes the muscle pain (myalgia) and brain/spinal cord inflammation (encephalomyelitis) aspects of the disease.
Question 4: When was the first documented ME outbreak officially recognized?
- 1934, Los Angeles County Hospital (Correct answer)
- 1955, Royal Free Hospital London
- 1984, Incline Village Nevada
- 1969, World Health Organization listing
Correct answer: 1934, Los Angeles County Hospital
One of the earliest documented ME outbreaks occurred in 1934 at Los Angeles County Hospital, affecting medical staff.
Question 5: What name has been proposed by the Institute of Medicine (now NAM) in their landmark 2015 report?
- Post-viral fatigue syndrome
- Systemic exertion intolerance disease (SEID) (Correct answer)
- Neuroimmune exhaustion syndrome
- Chronic multisystem illness
Correct answer: Systemic exertion intolerance disease (SEID)
The 2015 IOM report proposed renaming CFS to Systemic Exertion Intolerance Disease (SEID) to better reflect the central role of exertion intolerance in the condition.
Question 6: In what year did the World Health Organization first classify ME in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD)?
- 1969 (Correct answer)
- 1988
- 1992
- 2001
Correct answer: 1969
The WHO first classified ME in the ICD in 1969, recognizing it as a distinct neurological condition before the modern CFS label was created.
CFS CFS History and Nomenclature 1
What was the original nickname given to CFS following an outbreak in Incline Village, Nevada in the 1980s?