Epidemic outbreak of ME/CFS in Durban, South Africa?

[Purple]

I seem to recall vaguely that there was an outbreak of ME in Durban, South Africa. Perhaps some time in the 1960s or 1950s. Does anyone know more about this? My vague recollection is that there was a letter by a doctor from South Africa (or thereabouts) in a medical journal responding to a research article about ME, long time ago...


P.S. Moderator, if I have posted this in the wrong section of the forum, please feel free to move it.

 

[Guido den Broeder]

The outbreak in Durban happened in 1955.

There was an article in the Lancet about it, available through ScienceDirect.

HILL, R.C.J., CHEETHAM, R.W.S. & WALLACE, H.L. (1959)
Epidemic myalgic encephalomyelopathy - the Durban
outbreak. Lancet, i, 689.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/13642847

 

[Levi]

In the Durban outbreak a number of urines were tested for toxic
substances and some contained a non-nitrogenous
acidic metabolite, which was toxic for the larvae of
Aedes aegypti. Apparently the substance is present
in small amounts in normal urines, but it could not
be identified (Hill, Cheetham and Wallace, 1959).
No subsequent investigation of this abnormality has been reported.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2425322/pdf/postmedj00263-0008.pdf

 

[*GG*]

You might want to check out this link: http://www.meactionuk.org.uk/Grey-Information-on-ME-CFS.htm

about the subject you are enquiring but not sure it has the detail(s) you are looking for?

GG

 

[Purple]

Thank you everyone. That's all I need - just a confirmation that there was an outbreak of ME in Durban. I see there were 140 cases in hospital staff. An acquintance of mine from South Africa asked me to tell them more about ME - I always find when raising awareness about ME, it's good to mention the outbreaks (makes people think) - and now I can mention there was one in Durban.

In the document Levi linked, there was also a small outbreak in 1954-55 in Johannesburg, 14 cases.