Exley C, Swarbrick L,Gherardi RK, Authier FJ

Birchall Centre forInorganic Chemistry and Materials Science, Keele University, Staffordshire ST55BG, UK.

Macrophagicmyofasciitis and chronic fatigue syndrome are severely disabling conditionswhich may be caused by adverse reactions to aluminium-containing adjuvants invaccines. While a little is known of disease aetiology both conditions arecharacterised by an aberrant immune response, have a number of prominentsymptoms in common and are coincident in many individuals. Herein, we havedescribed a case of vaccine-associated chronic fatigue syndrome and macrophagicmyofasciitis in an individual demonstrating aluminium overload. This is thefirst report linking the latter with either of these two conditions and thepossibility is considered that the coincident aluminium overload contributedsignificantly to the severity of these conditions in this individual. This casehas highlighted potential dangers associated with aluminium-containingadjuvants and we have elucidated a possible mechanism whereby vaccinationinvolving aluminium-containing adjuvants could trigger the cascade ofimmunological events which are associated with autoimmune conditions includingchronic fatigue syndrome and macrophagic myofasciitis.

PMID: 19004564 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLIN