RETURN TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
Winter 2003  

Media Watch
A report on coverage of CFIDS in the mainstream media

Research update. The Smithsonian, a monthly, award-winning magazine that explores topics on art, science and history, featured an article on CFIDS in its December 2002 issue. The article reports on current CFIDS research, profiles best-selling author Laura Hillenbrand and her personal experience with the illness, and includes comments from Association President & CEO Kim Kenney. The article is available online at http:// www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/smithsonian/issues02/dec02/fatigue.html.

Letter to the editor. The November issue of ELLE magazine featured a letter to the editor from The CFIDS Association of America. The letter was written in response to an article, “The Thin Successful Woman’s Disease,” that ran in the August 2002 issue. The Association’s letter states that the author, Judith Warner, “harms millions of women with difficult-to-diagnose physical illnesses by insinuating that when the cause of a woman’s symptoms cannot be found, she is probably just anxious.”

DePaul study. The Nov. 17 issue of the Chicago Tribune featured an article, “Hope for the exhausted,” reporting on a DePaul University study that is trying to identify therapies to combat the physical drain of CFIDS. The article reports how person with CFIDS (PWC) and study participant Christina Ditto is learning to cope with her illness.

National radio program. “The Infinite Mind,” a National Public Radio program, produced an hour-long segment on CFIDS that aired on Oct. 9. The show covered a range of CFIDS topics, with several medical experts, patient advocates and Association President & CEO Kim Kenney contributing to the segment.

Hillenbrand featured. The Oct. 24 edition of the Boston Globe features an article profiling PWC and best-selling author Laura Hillenbrand. The compelling and compassionate article details Hillenbrand’s struggle with CFIDS and the immense, four-year effort it took to research and write the best-selling non-fiction book, “Sea-biscuit: An American Legend.”

Biotech wakes up. Bio-People, a magazine that covers the business of biotechnology, featured an article in its Autumn 2002 issue highlighting the lack of treatment available to people with CFIDS and fibromyalgia, and how biotech companies are gearing up to meet this unmet medical need.