Martin, W J · CAP today · 1994
This article suggests that certain stealth viruses may damage the nervous system and contribute to various brain-related conditions, including ME/CFS. The authors note that diseases like ME/CFS, fibromyalgia, depression, and autism share overlapping symptoms—such as pain, mood changes, and cognitive problems—which may reflect a common underlying problem in how the brain responds to different triggers.
This early hypothesis linking viral infection to the neurological basis of ME/CFS helped establish a framework for investigating infectious triggers in ME/CFS pathogenesis. The recognition that ME/CFS shares symptom patterns with other neuropsychiatric conditions has informed subsequent research into common biological mechanisms across these disorders.
This perspective article presents a hypothesis rather than new empirical data, and does not provide direct evidence that stealth viruses cause ME/CFS or other named conditions. The work does not distinguish between correlation and causation, nor does it establish prevalence of stealth viral infection in patient populations. No experimental methodology or patient data are described in the abstract.
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
Martin, W J (1994). Stealth viruses as neuropathogens.. CAP today. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10150189/
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-martin-1994-stealth-viruses,
author = {Martin, W J},
title = {Stealth viruses as neuropathogens.},
journal = {CAP today},
year = {1994},
note = {PubMed: 10150189},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/martin-1994-stealth-viruses},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/martin-1994-stealth-viruses
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