A British medical team has found evidence linking chronic fatigue to viral illness (The Lancet, Vol 344, No 8926).

Anthony David and his colleagues at the Institute' of Psychiatry, London, England, conducted a study of 618 patients with a general practice diagnosis of viral illness. They found that 6 months after diagnosis, 65 patients reported severe chronic fatigue which had not been present before the viral illness. They also found a 45 per cent increased risk of a patient experiencing chronic fatigue, 6 months after receiving a diagnosis o! viral illness from their general practitioner.