DAIKOS, G K, GARZONIS, S, PALEOLOGUE, A et al. · Lancet (London, England) · 1959 · DOI
This 1959 study documented an outbreak of ME/CFS-like illness among nursing students in Athens, Greece. Multiple students developed similar symptoms including muscle pain, fatigue, and neurological problems over a short period. The researchers observed the outbreak and recorded what happened, helping establish that ME/CFS can occur in groups of people.
This is one of the earliest documented outbreaks of ME/CFS, providing historical evidence that the illness is real, can affect multiple people simultaneously, and warrants medical investigation. Such outbreak descriptions helped establish ME/CFS as a recognized medical condition rather than individual complaints.
This study does not prove the cause of ME/CFS or establish how the illness spreads between people. The observational design cannot determine whether the cases resulted from infectious, environmental, or other factors, and cluster timing alone does not confirm transmission.
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
DAIKOS, G K, GARZONIS, S, PALEOLOGUE, A, BOUSVAROS, G A, & PAPADOYANNAKIS, N (1959). Benign myalgic encephalomyelitis: an outbreak in a nurses' school in Athens.. Lancet (London, England). https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(59)91883-5
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-daikos-1959-benign-myalgic,
author = {DAIKOS, G K and GARZONIS, S and PALEOLOGUE, A and BOUSVAROS, G A and PAPADOYANNAKIS, N},
title = {Benign myalgic encephalomyelitis: an outbreak in a nurses' school in Athens.},
journal = {Lancet (London, England)},
year = {1959},
doi = {10.1016/s0140-6736(59)91883-5},
note = {PubMed: 13642848},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/daikos-1959-benign-myalgic},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/daikos-1959-benign-myalgic
Contribute
Private, reviewed by a human. Not a public comment thread.