Lidbury, Brett A · Frontiers in medicine · 2021 · DOI
This study examines how Ross River virus, a mosquito-borne virus common in Australia, might trigger long-lasting fatigue and ME/CFS symptoms. The virus uses several tricks to hide from the immune system, and researchers propose these tricks may disrupt the body's energy-producing systems and cause the persistent exhaustion seen in ME/CFS. The findings suggest that understanding how this virus evades immunity could help explain why some viral infections lead to chronic fatigue.
This study provides a biological framework linking a specific virus to ME/CFS pathogenesis through immune evasion mechanisms, offering potential explanations for why some viral infections trigger chronic fatigue. Understanding these mechanisms could guide future diagnostic approaches and therapeutic targets for ME/CFS patients and inform research into post-viral syndromes including long-COVID.
This perspective article does not establish causal links between RRV and ME/CFS through experimental evidence, nor does it prove that the proposed immune evasion mechanisms actually occur in ME/CFS patients. The work is hypothesis-generating rather than confirmatory, and does not demonstrate that RRV infection necessarily leads to ME/CFS in individual patients or populations.
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 →
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Primary citation
Lidbury, Brett A (2021). Ross River Virus Immune Evasion Strategies and the Relevance to Post-viral Fatigue, and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Onset.. Frontiers in medicine. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2021.662513
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-lidbury-2021-ross-river,
author = {Lidbury, Brett A},
title = {Ross River Virus Immune Evasion Strategies and the Relevance to Post-viral Fatigue, and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Onset.},
journal = {Frontiers in medicine},
year = {2021},
doi = {10.3389/fmed.2021.662513},
note = {PubMed: 33842517},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/lidbury-2021-ross-river},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/lidbury-2021-ross-river
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