Medical Mysteries: Years of hives and fevers traced to a startling cause

A California woman suffered from an episodic flu-like illness that defied explanation. Its origin stunned her doctors.

By Sandra G. Boodman

April 13, 2024

excerpt:

There were few things Beth Sternlieb’s Los Angeles doctors could say with certainty about her baffling illness, but this much was clear: Although manageable for years, it had worsened dramatically.

For nearly two decades Sternlieb had been plagued by flu-like episodes that began with a headache and abdominal pain accompanied by fatigue, muscle aches and diarrhea. Within a day, a spotty red rash blanketed her abdomen.

A yoga and meditation teacher who worked at the University of California at Los Angeles’s pediatric pain program, Sternlieb had undergone numerous tests that failed to reveal the reason for the unidentified illness that occurred two or three times a year and lasted about five days. In 2004, after 17 years, the illness began occurring more frequently and Sternlieb never fully recovered between episodes. A year later she developed a high fever, chills and exhaustion that lasted five months and left her bedridden.

WAPO HEALTH