First of its kind CDC report claims 3.3MILLION Americans have chronic fatigue syndrome for which there is no test, treatment or cure

An official report shows that more Americans than previously thought suffer from a syndrome that causes them to feel constantly tired and unable to work.

In the first nationally representative survey of its kind, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 3.3 million people in the US have symptoms consistent with “chronic fatigue syndrome.”

The agency said their work highlighted that this was “not a rare disease” and urged doctors to recognize the disease. Previous estimates were 2.5 million.

But many doctors remain skeptical about the ill-defined disease, which is notoriously difficult to diagnose, and some even suggest it doesn't exist.

The report found that women from poor economic backgrounds and rural areas were most likely to say they had chronic fatigue syndrome.

Weight was not taken into account, but previous studies have shown that people who are overweight or obese are more likely to be diagnosed with the syndrome.

Patients with chronic fatigue syndrome are diagnosed after suffering from severe exhaustion that does not improve with rest for six months.

Patients say they are so tired that they are confined to their homes for days after going to their children's school, or have to sleep in the car after running errands.

Other symptoms include struggling with back pain, brain fog, and having trouble falling asleep.

Doctors say the symptoms are similar to 'Long Covid', which has recently been described as 'highly exaggerated' in a major international study.

As with Long Covid, a cause for this disease has not yet been identified – but doctors say it could be linked to inflammation caused by the immune system.

There is currently no cure and the disease cannot be easily diagnosed using a blood test or scan.

But treatments can include yoga and stretching, as well as massages and deep breathing.

In their researchBetween 2021 and 2022, the CDC recruited 57,000 adults of all ages and races in the US.

Participants were asked whether they had ever been told they had myalgic encephalomyelitis or chronic fatigue syndrome and whether they still had them.

A total of 1.3 percent answered yes to both questions, the researchers said.

An analysis was then conducted to calculate the proportion of the US population affected, which yielded the result of 3.3 million people.

The study was based on self-reported symptoms and participants were not asked to submit medical records as evidence.

Researchers also found that the syndrome was more commonly reported in women than men and in people of white and black ethnic backgrounds.

Those from less affluent economic backgrounds were also more likely to say they had the syndrome.

Some doctors suggested that the study may have underestimated the number of people suffering from chronic fatigue, because many patients probably don't know they have it.

“It has never become a clinically popular diagnosis in the US because no drugs have been approved for it,” says Dr. Daniel Clauw of the University of Michigan's Pain and Fatigue Research Center.

“There are no treatment guidelines for it,” he added.

Among the patients suffering from the syndrome was Hannah Powell, a 26-year-old woman in Utah who was gone for five years before she was diagnosed.

She contracted the disease during a trip to Belize, in Central America, she said, with doctors initially thinking it was malaria.

Ms Powell said she made a recording but then developed persistent exhaustion which caused her to have trouble sleeping and vomit repeatedly. She had to stop playing sports and had trouble with her schoolwork.

She was eventually treated through regular infusions of fluids and medications.

Mrs Powell said: 'Doctors called me a hypochondriac and said it was just anxiety and depression.'