Phoenix Rising: an Interview with Dr. John Chia, M.D. on Enteroviruses and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS)

[Cort Johnson]

In this edition we feature an extensive interview with Dr. John Chia, MD. Dr. Chia helped re-ignite the 'pathogen question' in ME/CFS with his finding a few years ago that 80% of his chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) patients had a previously undiagnosed enteroviral infection in their gastrointestinal systems. Dr. Chia has only recently become well known in ME/CFS circles but he has a long and personal acquaintance with this disease. His son Andrew fell ill with ME/CFS as a teenager; now fully recovered he helps his father in the laboratory and is embarking on a  medical career of his own. 

In this two-part interview Dr. Chia talks about how his personal connection with this disease thrust him into studying it and what impact he believes enteroviruses have on ME/CFS patients. Among other subjects he discusses diagnosis, the immune response, the ups and downs of the illness and, of course, treatment. 

The interview is in two parts with the second part coming out next week. Because parts of the interview are quite technical a introduction containing a short overview of the 'pathogen question' and an overview of Dr. Chia's work comes first. You can read these or go straight to the interview at the link below.  

http://phoenix-cfs.org/IntChiaIntro.html

Coming up shortly is an issue focusing on Dr. Baraniuk's approach to ME/CFS ('Spinal Tapping for ME/CFS') with my account of what its like to get 'tapped', a two part interview with Dr. Friedberg and 'Cracking the Foundation' on the fascinating and, yes, ground-breaking (pardon the pun) work the Pacific Fatigue Lab. 

Happy reading, 

Cort