Santiago, Tânia, Rebelo, Olinda, Negrão, Luís et al. · Rheumatology international · 2015 · DOI
This study looked at 16 patients with a muscle condition called macrophagic myofasciitis (MMF), where aluminum from vaccines builds up in muscle tissue at the injection site. Half of these patients also had chronic fatigue syndrome. The researchers found that most patients had received aluminum-containing vaccines before their symptoms started, suggesting vaccines might trigger this muscle condition in some people.
This research is relevant to ME/CFS patients because half of the MMF cases presented with chronic fatigue syndrome, suggesting a possible connection between vaccine-adjuvant-related inflammation and post-vaccination fatigue. Understanding inflammatory myopathies associated with aluminum adjuvants may help identify mechanisms that could contribute to ME/CFS-like symptoms in some patients.
This study does not prove that vaccines cause ME/CFS or MMF in the general population—it describes cases where both conditions co-occurred, not a causal link. The lack of a control group of vaccinated individuals without MMF means we cannot determine whether aluminum exposure genuinely triggers disease or merely precedes it in coincidence. Retrospective case series are observational and cannot rule out selection bias or confounding factors.
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
Santiago, Tânia, Rebelo, Olinda, Negrão, Luís, & Matos, Anabela (2015). Macrophagic myofasciitis and vaccination: consequence or coincidence?. Rheumatology international. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00296-014-3065-4
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-santiago-2015-macrophagic-myofasciitis,
author = {Santiago, Tânia and Rebelo, Olinda and Negrão, Luís and Matos, Anabela},
title = {Macrophagic myofasciitis and vaccination: consequence or coincidence?},
journal = {Rheumatology international},
year = {2015},
doi = {10.1007/s00296-014-3065-4},
note = {PubMed: 24923906},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/santiago-2015-macrophagic-myofasciitis},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/santiago-2015-macrophagic-myofasciitis
Contribute
Private, reviewed by a human. Not a public comment thread.