Martinez-Lavin, Manuel, Tejada-Ruiz, Melina · Autoimmunity reviews · 2020 · DOI
This review looked at three conditions that share similar symptoms—Gulf War illness, post-HPV vaccination syndrome, and Macrophagic Myofasciitis—and found they may have a common cause related to vaccines. All three conditions involve chronic fatigue, widespread pain, and cognitive problems. The authors propose that in some susceptible people, vaccines or multiple vaccines given close together might trigger an autoimmune reaction affecting the nervous system that controls heart rate, blood pressure, and other automatic body functions.
This study is significant because ME/CFS shares substantial clinical overlap with these vaccine-related syndromes, suggesting that dysautonomia and small fiber neuropathy may be relevant biomarkers in ME/CFS pathogenesis. The proposed mechanism of vaccine-induced autoimmune dysautonomia could inform new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for ME/CFS patients. Understanding potential autoimmune mechanisms helps validate the biological basis of ME/CFS and related conditions.
This review does not establish that vaccines cause ME/CFS or the three syndromes discussed—it identifies association in epidemiological studies but not definitive causation. The study does not demonstrate that all ME/CFS cases result from vaccine exposure, as ME/CFS has multiple known triggers and etiologies. Individual susceptibility factors remain undefined, so the review cannot determine which vaccinated individuals will develop these conditions.
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
Martinez-Lavin, Manuel & Tejada-Ruiz, Melina (2020). Gulf war illness, post-HPV vaccination syndrome, and Macrophagic Myofasciitis. Similar disabling conditions possibly linked to vaccine-induced autoimmune dysautonomia.. Autoimmunity reviews. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autrev.2020.102603
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-martinez-lavin-2020-gulf-war,
author = {Martinez-Lavin, Manuel and Tejada-Ruiz, Melina},
title = {Gulf war illness, post-HPV vaccination syndrome, and Macrophagic Myofasciitis. Similar disabling conditions possibly linked to vaccine-induced autoimmune dysautonomia.},
journal = {Autoimmunity reviews},
year = {2020},
doi = {10.1016/j.autrev.2020.102603},
note = {PubMed: 32659478},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/martinez-lavin-2020-gulf-war},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-28. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/martinez-lavin-2020-gulf-war
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