Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) · MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report · 1993
In the early 1990s, some laboratories were offering blood tests to check if people with ME/CFS had been infected with certain viruses called retroviruses. This CDC study tested whether three of these commercial tests could actually tell the difference between people with ME/CFS and healthy people. The researchers found that these tests could not reliably distinguish between the two groups, meaning the tests were not accurate for identifying ME/CFS.
This study is important because it demonstrated that commercial retroviral tests marketed to ME/CFS patients in the early 1990s were not scientifically valid. It highlights the need for rigorous evaluation of diagnostic tests before clinical implementation and protects patients from potentially unnecessary or misleading testing.
This study does not prove that retroviruses play no role in ME/CFS; rather, it shows that these three specific commercial tests were unable to detect any association if one existed. The failure to identify a retroviral connection with these assays does not establish that retroviruses are not involved in ME/CFS pathogenesis. It specifically challenges test accuracy, not the underlying hypothesis.
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
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (1993). Inability of retroviral tests to identify persons with chronic fatigue syndrome, 1992.. MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8446093/
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-centers-1993-inability-retroviral,
author = {Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)},
title = {Inability of retroviral tests to identify persons with chronic fatigue syndrome, 1992.},
journal = {MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report},
year = {1993},
note = {PubMed: 8446093},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/centers-1993-inability-retroviral},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-25. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/centers-1993-inability-retroviral
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