by Karen Lambert

I have Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFS/CFIDS/ME) and HIV-NEGATIVE AIDS, idiopathic CD lymphocytopenia. With these two clinical diagnoses, I believe that makes me living proof that the AIDS-like CFS/ME is transmissible, something that the medical establishment seems unable to admit or to acknowledge. I also believe it makes me living proof that CFS and HIV-NEGATIVE AIDS are basically the same mysterious immune disorder.

Three years ago, after a heterosexual sexual encounter, I became seriously ill with what looks like the natural disease progression of AIDS. After an “acute infection” and a “period of asymptomatic health”, I have fallen extremely ill to an unrelenting, progressively-worsening AIDS-like demise. I can pinpoint exactly when I was infected with my “chronic viral syndrome of unknown etiology”and because the “acute infection” stage was so distinguishable, I can also pinpoint exactly when my undiagnosed pathogen left my body and infected yet another host.

Whatever I am currently dealing with, it strongly resembles classic textbook HIV/AIDS disease. But, to add to my inquiry, I also clinically satisfy the CDC’s criteria for the diagnosis of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Increasingly, I have become concerned that my systemic diagnosis is caught up in the treacherous politics of CFS/ME and AIDS. Most people with CFS/ME do not like to talk about the many symptoms and immune abnormalities that they share with AIDS patients. I also suspect that most ailing patients would rather be told that they have the very mysterious CFS than to be told that they have AIDS.

I have a Master’s degree. I am a director at my firm. I used to be a triathlete. I have never used IV drugs. I have never traveled abroad. I can count my sexual partners on two hands. Statistically speaking, I know that my undiagnosed infectious and communicable disease is not rare…so, you tell me, if they are not in the miscellaneous CFS/ME category, where are all these other immunosuppressed people?

Anyone with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, who does not consider the possibility that CFS/ME will eventually progress to a NON-HIV AIDS diagnosis, is very well trumping their own ability to diagnosis the root cause of their illness.

Why isn’t CFS/ME a reportable disease overseen by our public health department? Why are ME and CFS (i.e., the same exact disorder) suspiciously categorized as two separate illnesses on a worldwide level (i.e., by ICD codes)? Doesn’t anyone else but me, very clearly see, the catastrophic cover-up going on here?

Why are we not reading about Non-HIV AIDS cases (and/or the AIDS-like nature of CFS) on the front pages of every newspaper in the world? And if CFS/ME is Non-HIV AIDS, then, depending on who you believe, there are anywhere between 500,000 – 14,000,000 Americans out there with a transmissible illness. If that is what it truly is, our new form of AIDS dwarfs the ‘original’ AIDS epidemic — tenfold!

I want honest answers for myself, for everyone who is suffering from this hideous illness, and especially for those who remain uninfected by my undiagnosed infectious and communicable disease.

As worrisome as my health is to me, I am extremely troubled by the strong likelihood that more people are being infected every minute that Non-HIV AIDS cases (like mine) are allowed to go undetected – especially if it turns out that AIDS and CFIDS/ME are basically the same disorder.

You can label my AIDS-like illness whatever you wish. I would even allow you to call it infectious-CFS, even though it is utterly beyond my realm of comprehension as to how the medical establishment can generically name an entire disease paradigm based on just one (of my numerous) symptom(s).

Regardless of how politics may try to dissuade or delude you, all you need to know is that my idiopathic immune dysfunction is infectious! It is contagious! And it is spreading, unleashed, in the world’s population!

I am not afraid to say that I have AIDS without HIV — idiopathic CD lymphocytopenia — my second official clinical diagnosis. I am equally as unafraid of saying the most obvious thing about CFS/ME: it sure does look like AIDS to me.

We talk openly about preparing for an impending Avian Flu pandemic. Why not talk about the HIV-NEGATIVE AIDS epidemic that already exists (and is spreading) amongst us?

If it takes courage to think and to say the things that I do, I hope that there will be a miraculous outbreak of bravery from coast-to-coast. I stopped fighting for myself a long, long time ago. I fight for humanity.

I demand a CFS/HIV revolution. Vive La Revolución‏.

To learn more about non-HIV AIDS, and to see the *new* face of AIDS, please visit: CFS Straight Talk

Could I be you?

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- As originally appeared in LA Progressive Magazine.

Karen Lambert a Master’s degree. She was a director at my firm. She used to be a triathlete. She has never used IV drugs, nor traveled abroad. She can count her sexual partners on two hands.