Who is doing research into CFS?

In Australia: The team at The Prince Henry Hospital/University of NSW has been studying CFS since 1987. Team members include Associate Professor Andrew Lloyd, Associate Professor Ian Hickie, and Professor Denis Wakefield (and several others). This group has looked at immunological, neurophysiological, epidemiological, virological, genetic, psychiatric and economic aspects of the illness, and has conducted several treatment trials.

In 1994, a team from the University of Newcastle and the University of Sydney received substantial publicity relating to their discovery of a novel chemical compound in the urine of people with CFS. This group has also found multiple biochemical abnormalities in CFS, and currently has underway a study looking at urinary metabolites, hormones, red blood cells, symptoms and psychology in CFS. A group at the Royal Adelaide Hospital is studying potassium levels in people with CFS, and another researcher in Adelaide is looking at red blood cell structure and function in CFS patients.

Dr Kathy Rowe at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne has been working with adolescents with CFS for more than six years, and has conducted a treatment trial and devised management strategies for sufferers in this age group.

In the United States: Researchers at the National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have been investigating CFS since the mid-1980's and earlier. These are government funded agencies. The CDC has listed CFS in the category of 'Priority 1 New, Reemerging and Drug Resistant Infectious Diseases', along with diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, hepatitis C and measles. Researchers from Harvard Medical School, the University of Miami, the University of Minnesota and other universities and hospitals are actively involved in CFS research. One of the world's leading AIDS researchers (Professor Jay Levy) of the University of California in San Francisco is also studying CFS.

In the United Kingdom: Professor Peter Behan of the Institute of Neurological Sciences at the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow, Scotland, heads the largest research team. Researchers from Oxford University, Kings College School of Medicine, the Royal Free Hospital and St Mary's Hospital are among those investigating CFS.

Elsewhere: Research is also taking place in Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, Sweden and The Netherlands.