PEOPLE who have suffered from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome say they have been “vindicated” after it was discovered the condition may be linked to a virus.

Ian Logan, chairman of the Worcestershire ME Support Group, said the findings would be important to all people affected by the debilitating condition, after years of being told it was depression or even that the condition was all in their head.

Researchers say they have discovered a link between CFS, which is also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), and an obscure retrovirus related to a group of viruses discovered to infect mice.

The study, published in the journal Science, shows that XMRV virus was found in 68 of 101 patients in the US with CFS.

Senior author of the study Dr Judy Mikovits, director of research at the Whittemore Peterson Institute in Reno, Nevada, said further blood tests had revealed that more than 95 per cent of patients had CFS, which was branded “yuppie flu” in the 1980s.

Dr Mikovits suggested XMRV could have jumped the species barrier from mouse to man like HIV, which is thought to have infected humans from monkeys or apes.

Ian Logan, aged 62, of Martley, who has been unable to work for 20 years despite being a qualified engineer, said: “This is absolutely wonderful news. If they could, people with ME or CFS would be jumping for joy.”

Mr Logan said he was now optimistic that people could be tested for the virus and one day be inoculated against it so people could go on to live normal lives. He said: “For 20 years people have been made to feel like frauds, that it is of their own doing and their own cause and that they are not helping themselves.

“This stigma has stuck. I know one man who has been ill since the age of 12 – he’s now 65.

“This is like the fall of the Berlin Wall for us, like the start of the Iron Curtain falling. We have been vindicated.”

The condition causes a wide range of symptoms, including muscle and joint pain, fatigue, forgetfulness, memory loss, confusion, difficulty concentrating, sleep disturbances, waking up feeling tired, insomnia and flu-like symptoms.

The support group has links with more than 240 people who have been affected by CFS over the last five years, but Mr Logan thinks there could be many more people in Worcestershire who face a daily battle against the condition.