Vojdani, A, Choppa, P C, Tagle, C et al. · FEMS immunology and medical microbiology · 1998 · DOI
Researchers tested blood samples from 100 ME/CFS patients and 50 healthy people to see if a bacterium called Mycoplasma fermentans was present. They found this bacterium's genetic material in more than a third of ME/CFS patients compared to only 8% of healthy controls. Patients with higher amounts of the bacterium also had stronger immune responses against it, suggesting their bodies were reacting to the infection.
This study suggests a potential infectious trigger in ME/CFS that differs significantly from healthy populations, supporting the hypothesis that microbial infections may play a role in the disease. The finding that bacterial load correlates with immune response intensity provides a biological mechanism that could help explain ME/CFS pathogenesis and potentially guide treatment strategies.
This study does not prove that Mycoplasma fermentans causes ME/CFS—it only shows an association. The findings do not establish whether the bacterium is a primary cause, a secondary opportunistic infection, or simply a marker of immune dysregulation. Culturing the organism from patient samples and demonstrating direct pathogenic mechanisms would be necessary to establish causation.
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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