Peter Snow

Peter Grahame Snow (11 November 1934 – 28 February 2006) was a New Zealand general practitioner. He served the rural community of Tapanui for over 30 years. He was president of the Royal New Zealand College of GPs from 1998–99 and received their highest honour, Distinguished Fellowship, in 2001. He was a member of the Otago Hospital Board and its successor, the Otago District Health Board. Education As a boy, Snow attended Auckland Grammar School, graduating with the class of 1948. While training in medicine he expressed an interest in general practice, so when a position became available he took up general practice in Tapanui. Practice In 1984 he was presented with a number of patients with a prolonged exertional 'flu-like illness, but presenting no diagnosable condition. While some people thought they were no different from commonly found "tired all the time" cases, Dr Snow was convinced that they were indeed sick and proceeded to investigate. Many were sheep farmers who previously had a perfect record of health. Observing a similarity between the symptoms of stock suffering from selenium deficiency and these patients, he was the first doctor in New Zealand to identify the disease which turned out to be an outbreak of myalgic encephalomyelitis, now classed as chronic fatigue syndrome. Owing to, often disparaging, publicity surrounding these discoveries and a study into them by Snow, Marion Poore, and Charlotte Paul, the illness came to be known in New Zealand as "Tapanui flu" after the town of the same name in West Otago.