Fibromyalgia & Fatigue Centers Applaud CDC's Heightened Efforts to Address Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

ADDISON, Texas, Nov. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- The Center for Disease Control (CDC) together with the National Institute for Health today announced a four million dollar research program to study the causes and possible treatments for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). The CDC also announced an accompanying national education campaign to raise public awareness of this rapidly growing illness. Fibromyalgia & Fatigue Centers, Inc. -- a national network of medical centers that specialize in treating patients with CFS welcomes these announcements as validation by U.S. government health officials of the seriousness of the CFS reality.

With the number of Americans suffering from this debilitating condition having risen in recent years from approximately 50,000 to several million, CFS represents a potential public health epidemic that can no longer be ignored by the medical community. Unfortunately, many physicians continue to believe CFS symptoms are psychosomatic, even though hundreds of studies indicate otherwise. The importance of the CDC announcement is the opportunity it represents to change this thinking.

As the CDC begins its national educational awareness campaign, it is essential to understand the medical management required in treating the illness. Diagnosis can be difficult. What is sometimes thought to be the flu can be the beginning stages of Chronic Fatigue and produce a cycle of feeling poorly, then better, just before again being overcome with fatigue. When CFS is diagnosed, a longer term treatment program is required. Similar to patients undergoing chemotherapy or are in the later stages of AIDS, effective CFS treatment isn't accomplished in a single short visit with a physician. And as with those illnesses, CFS is indiscriminant, equally able to affect active women, men and children, reducing their lifestyle with overwhelming debilitation.

"It's extremely gratifying to see that major ...