From the studies it seems that the Staph vaccine is at least as effective as Rituximab or Ampligen but with fewer side effects, a lower cost, and an easier dosage process
From my reading of the Gottfries studies, I got the impression that Staphypan was not quite as effective as rituximab in terms of the degree of ME/CFS symptom amelioration, but probably not lagging too far behind rituximab.
It is a little bit hard to gauge the efficacy of Staphypan in the clinical studies, because Prof Gottfries used an unusual scale of ME/CFS disability, the Comprehensive Psychopathological Rating Scale (CPRS), which I have not been able to get hold of (but some info about the CPRS is
here).
In his large clinical trial of 100 patients with both fibromyalgia and ME/CFS, he found that 33% of treated patients obtained a 50% reduction in symptoms on the CPRS.
Though his smaller clinical trial of 28 patients with both fibromyalgia and ME/CFS gives a more tangible sense of the improvements gained: in this trial, he says that in a follow-up study of 23 patients, the vaccine treatment was continued for 2 to 6 years, and 50% were rehabilitated successfully and resumed half-time or full-time work.
Resuming half-time or full-time work means that you either have improved to the point that you only have mild ME/CFS (mild ME/CFS patients are usually able to work), or means that you are in near full remission.
It was very unfortunate that Staphypan was discontinued by the manufacturer soon after the publication of Prof Gottfries's clinical trials in Sweden; had that not occurred, I am sure we would have had these trials replicated elsewhere, to add to the evidence base for Staphypan.
Did those studies use the Canadians Consesus Criteria for selection of subjects?
The CCC was published in 2003 I think, so was not available at that time Gottfries conducted his studies. I think he used the CDC criteria, but you'd have to check the studies.