Het chronische-moeheidsyndroom; is er verband met het Epstein-Barr-virus?

– In 10 patients with symptoms and signs (e.g. fatigue, lymphadenopathy, fever, arthropathy) of ‘chronic mononucleosis syndrome’, Epstein-Barr virus-specific serologic tests were performed. The results were compared with those of a group of healthy persons. No differences were found in the level of anti-EA- and anti-EBNA-antibodies between patients and controls. Although the patients had, as a group, significantly higher levels of anti-VCA-IgG than the controls (geometric means 1:705 vs 1:112; p < 0.01), these findings were not relevant for the diagnosis ‘chronic fatigue syndrome’ because of overlap between the groups.

The role of the Epstein-Barr virus in the disease, which in our opinion should have a more general name such as ‘chronic fatigue syndrome’, is questioned.