Cameron, Barbara, Flamand, Louis, Juwana, Hedy et al. · Journal of medical virology · 2010 · DOI
Researchers tested blood samples from ME/CFS patients and healthy controls to see whether three common herpesviruses (EBV, CMV, and HHV-6) were actively reactivating or causing ongoing infection. They found no evidence that these viruses were actively infected or reactivating in ME/CFS patients compared to controls who recovered normally from infection.
For decades, researchers have investigated whether herpesviruses drive ME/CFS pathology. This well-designed longitudinal study from a prospective infection cohort provides direct evidence addressing a common hypothesis, helping narrow the focus of future mechanistic research toward other potential drivers of post-infectious fatigue.
This study does not prove that herpesviruses play no role in ME/CFS under any circumstances—it only demonstrates that ongoing or reactivated herpesvirus infection is not present in serum at detectable levels during the acute phase studied. It does not rule out past herpesvirus infection as a trigger, latent viral persistence in tissue compartments, or viral contributions to immune dysregulation that persists after viral clearance.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Cameron, Barbara, Flamand, Louis, Juwana, Hedy, Middeldorp, Jaap, Naing, Zin, Rawlinson, William, et al. (2010). Serological and virological investigation of the role of the herpesviruses EBV, CMV and HHV-6 in post-infective fatigue syndrome.. Journal of medical virology. https://doi.org/10.1002/jmv.21873
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-cameron-2010-serological-virological,
author = {Cameron, Barbara and Flamand, Louis and Juwana, Hedy and Middeldorp, Jaap and Naing, Zin and Rawlinson, William and Ablashi, Dharam and Lloyd, Andrew},
title = {Serological and virological investigation of the role of the herpesviruses EBV, CMV and HHV-6 in post-infective fatigue syndrome.},
journal = {Journal of medical virology},
year = {2010},
doi = {10.1002/jmv.21873},
note = {PubMed: 20827765},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/cameron-2010-serological-virological},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-29. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/cameron-2010-serological-virological
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