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Nov 3, 2006 6:28 pm US/Eastern
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Health: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
by Stephanie Stahl
PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ―
Eighty percent of Americans who have this disorder don't know they have the illness so millions of people are suffering often with debilitating fatigue.
This was all she ever felt like doing for more than a decade 26 year old Nicole Dante felt tired all the time.
Sometimes it gets so bad. She slept up to 16 hours a night.
"That will happen sometimes for like a few weeks at a time," said Nicole Dante, suffers from chronic fatigue.
Nicole was finally diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
A controversial condition for many years some doctors just didn't believe it existed.
But now the federal government says it's real and affects more than one million Americans.
"We are committed to improving the awareness that this is a real illness and that people need real medical care," said Dr. Julie Gerberding Centers for Disease.
Federal health officials are launching a public awareness campaign because it's believed up to 80 percent of patients who have chronic fatigue, may not know it.
There's evidence that the patients with this illness experience a level of disability that's equal to that of patients with last stage aids," said Dr. Nancy Klimas.
Symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome include:
- incapacitating fatigue
- insomnia
- trouble concentrating & with memory
- flu like, aches headaches
"When I tried even moderate things like going for a walk I would often collapse sometimes for weeks at a time, even a shower would be too much," said Adrianne Ryan.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)