Nov 3, 2006 2:51 pm US/Eastern
CDC To Raise Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Awareness
WASHINGTON (AP) ―
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The CDC says the illness affects at least a million Americans. Women are four times as likely to be affected as men, and minority women are affected at a rate greater than white women.
New York lawyer Adrianne Ryan says her toughest fight wasn't swaying a jury. It was persuading people that her chronic fatigue wasn't all in her mind.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has unveiled an awareness campaign to highlight Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. CDC Director Julie Gerberding says chronic-fatigue has been a mystery to doctors, from how it develops to methods of treatment.
Ryan says she was an athlete, and was accustomed to pushing through pain. But her chronic fatigue would get better, and suddenly return. She withdrew from her friends and family. She was unable to get precise medical help. And she had to fend off well-meaning people who told her that her illness was all in her mind, and that she could be cured by positive thinking.
Ryan says that several years after contracting the disease, her health has finally returned.
The CDC says the illness affects at least a million Americans. Women are four times as likely to be affected as men, and minority women are affected at a rate greater than white women.
(© 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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