Clusters or outbreaks first put ME/CFS on the map over twenty years ago. The clusters are still occurring – every infectious outbreak from Giardia to SARS leaves behind set of ME/CFS-like patients behind – but they’ve rarely been studied in ME/CFS.
Could your illness have started with a mosquito or tick bite?
The Simmaron Research Institute is putting clusters back on the map with a study examining clusters of insect triggered ME/CFS. The study is driven by the recognition that insect borne illnesses are rarely tested for but can often cause long term ME/CFS-like illnesses.
Could your ME/CFS have been triggered by a mosquito or tick bite? Could you have an undiagnosed but possibly treatable infection? The lead investigator, Konstance Knox, thinks the answers will surprise. Find out more in
Thank you Cort for this article
While living abroad, I was bitten by mosquitos and had a very bad reaction. Both legs swelled from the knees up and went purple and black. I couldn’t get out of bed the first day after as they were so heavy and painful. Then I was unable to sit or walk without great difficulty. As we were in the middle East where mosquitos were not usually present, I didn’t bother going to the Doctor and it took 1 week for the swelling to go down.
There had been a stadium built close to where we lived and an artificial lake was made within the grounds of the stadium. They realised the mosquito problem quickly and we were not bothered after that.
We returned home not long after. I told my GP this a few years ago and asked about Skeeter’s Syndrome, but he just shrugged his shoulders. I’m now allergic to Quinine and often wonder if there is a connection
I’ve never been tested for Lyme disease either, as I was told I would know if I’d been bitten by a tick!!
Ann
I got sick in the middle of winter, but I remember having symptoms at least several weeks before which could have put me into a warmer time of year when bugs were around. I would have remembered a tick bite, though, as those buggers embed themselves. And yes, at the university there were others who go sick around the same time, so it was a cluster, but then the flu is a cluster too, and that’s not from an insect. The encephalitis aspect does conjure up an insect suspect though, doesn’t it?
Well, good luck to these guys – you never know.
You never do and I was surprised at how often encephalitis showed up in the insect borne illnesses…
My CFS began with a mosquito-borne chikungunya (CHIKV) infection.