Is it possible to spread ME/CFS to a healthy person?

[ChookityPop]

Or could a ME/CFS patient worsen from being for example intimate with another ME/CFS patient?



Any evidence or anecdotes of this happening?

 

[hapl808]

I think 'maybe' is the answer, mostly since it can be viral onset. I think the person I likely got EBV from is what started my symptoms - with a few other life events causing major declines.

 

[overtrain]

Anecdotal, but about 30ish years ago (decades before ME/CFS hit me, & I'd basically never heard much, if anything about it at all), I met a woman at a bus stop in San Francisco, & we got talking while waiting for the bus. She'd been a flight attendant for years, but on disability then. She said she was on this one plane trip & felt fine, but by the time it landed, she knew something was wrong with her. She said she was convinced she caught ME on that plane. She was adamant about the air on that plane not being right. She was still searching for answers as to how she "caught" it. It was such a jarring conversation with a stranger, & at the time I thought, jeez, that's scary. Watch out for that....

Another story was a piece of nonfiction, a short story I read long ago, again before I got sick. Written by a woman, she was on a road trip? Or something, with friends. Alright, just googled it: "A Sudden Illness" by Laura Hillenbrand. That stuck in my memory too. It's online if anyone wants to read it. The New Yorker.

Of course there was Incline Village, & a fairly recent-- again New Yorker article-- about it. I hope this post was helpful to your question.

 

[Carl]

You can "catch" ME/Fibro from sucking your thumb/finger or licking any part of the human body because there are pathogenic bacteria all over the human body including MRSA and Klebsiella pneumoniae which both can cause the conditions in the digestive system which promote ME ie "Leaky Gut". ME is not viral however viruses can induce ME when the correct conditions exist in the digestive system.

 

[Wishful]

My opinion is that ME is not contagious. You can transfer something that triggers ME in someone else, but that same agent can be transferred just the same by someone who doesn't have ME. Likewise, microbial infections can worsen ME, so it's possible to transfer that and make another PWME worse, but again, having ME doesn't make a difference in transferring whatever it is.

 

[Insomniac]

My opinion is that ME is not contagious. You can transfer something that triggers ME in someone else, but that same agent can be transferred just the same by someone who doesn't have ME....

I agree.
It's just an infectious trigger.
If this was easily caught, there would be more people ill and they would not have been able to psychologise and gaslight it this long