Stormorken, Eva, Jason, Leonard A, Kirkevold, Marit · BMC family practice · 2017 · DOI
This study followed 26 adults in Norway who developed severe fatigue and other symptoms after a water contamination outbreak caused by a parasite. Researchers interviewed these patients about how their illness developed and affected their daily lives. Everyone described similar patterns: getting worse over time, reaching a lowest point, then gradually improving—but none returned to their pre-illness health, and most had to stop working or studying.
This research validates the lived experience of ME/CFS patients by documenting consistent patterns of illness progression and the lasting impact on work, education, and quality of life. The identified five-phase trajectory could help clinicians recognize and intervene earlier in disease course, potentially improving outcomes and quality of life for patients with post-infectious fatigue conditions.
This study does not establish causation between initial infection and PIFS development, nor does it prove that early intervention would definitively prevent severe disability. The small sample from a single outbreak cannot be generalized to all ME/CFS cases or other post-infectious fatigue populations. Retrospective functional rating may be subject to recall bias and does not include objective measures of functional decline.
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
Stormorken, Eva, Jason, Leonard A, & Kirkevold, Marit (2017). From good health to illness with post-infectious fatigue syndrome: a qualitative study of adults' experiences of the illness trajectory.. BMC family practice. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12875-017-0614-4
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-stormorken-2017-good-health,
author = {Stormorken, Eva and Jason, Leonard A and Kirkevold, Marit},
title = {From good health to illness with post-infectious fatigue syndrome: a qualitative study of adults' experiences of the illness trajectory.},
journal = {BMC family practice},
year = {2017},
doi = {10.1186/s12875-017-0614-4},
note = {PubMed: 28347294},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/stormorken-2017-good-health},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-26. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/stormorken-2017-good-health
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