Oh umm wow

[kath_ballantyne]

So it's probably not all in our heads huh?

We have detected the retroviral infection XMRV is greater than 95% of the more than 200 ME/CFS, Fibromylagia, Atypical MS patients tested.

Virus Is Found in Many With Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

W-P Institute Update: 95% of ME/CFS Patients Positive for XMRV, with More-Refined TestThe WP Institute, the

Comments

[libgirl]

This is fascinating....Hmm.

[kath_ballantyne]

Yes. I'm interested in how the studies are going to go

[nathaniel_hp]

Oh, very interesting indeed. Here's to hoping that the needed amount of research will be done, and swiftly!

[kath_ballantyne]

Yes. I hope so too.

It is an interesting finding.

[nimnod]

Interestingly enough, I never had fibro until I lived with a flatmate who had chronic fatigue. How are these retroviruses caught or passed on?

Also - thanks so much for posting this.

[kath_ballantyne]

From what I could see it seems to be bodily fluids. They said it wasn't airborn.

Though I don't know how contagious it is or how long it lasts outside the body etc.

There seems to be a genetic and environmental component to it as well.
You need to be genetically suseptable from the look of it. I guess that explains why it's not as prevalent as something like HIV

I'll keep up with the news anyway.
It's still very early days. The paper was only released two days ago.

[nimnod]

Bodily fluids. I wonder if that etends to drinking out of someone's coke bottle etc. Sigh. Anyway, good avenue of research.

[kath_ballantyne]

I found this:
XMRV is thought to be transmitted through body fluids such as blood, semen, and mother’s breast milk but is not transmitted through the air. It is not known whether XMRV is more easily transmitted than other human retroviruses.

Also this about Fibro:
A few fibromyalgia samples were tested and yes, they were positive. However the sampling was very small, and testing will have to continue on a much larger scale to begin to draw significant conclusions. In addition, many patients with ME/CFS have been given the diagnosis of fibromyalgia when in fact they have ME/CFS and fibromyalgia.

[fitzette]

that's very interesting. I know that studies for chronic conditions are more difficult to get funded, so I hope research continues in this vein.

[kath_ballantyne]

Yeah. I think this is a pretty major finding. 95% is a huge amount really.
They have had a lot of trouble getting the funding before this. I think mainly because of the stupid associations people have with Chronic Fatigue. Oh it's just being tired. That's nothing serious.
Ugh. Hopefully the discovery of a retrovirus (considering the only other retroviruses we know of are HIV that causes AIDS and HTLV-1 and 2 that causes T-cell leukemia and T-cell lymphoma) will make people take it more seriously.

Also, if they know what is causing the condition they can work on more targeted treatments and be more aware of other things that are likely to go wrong like development of certain cancers. There seems to be a strong link between retroviruses and opportunistic cancers. Both HIV and HTLV can cause cancer and XMRV has been found in people with aggressive prostate cancer.

It's a bit scary but any step forward...

[fitzette]

Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. Links with, and I don't know the right word here, not 'serious' because I don't mean CFS isn't serious, obviously not, but it's not deadly, so a lot of people don't take it seriously I think, but links with stuff like HIV and HTVL are hopefully going to help with making funding easier.

if that makes any sense.

[venturous1]

that is such welcome news!! I have a friend with fibro who has recently been not-diagnosed with MS ("we think you have MS, but you dont, really") and it's so confusing to be ill and deal with MDs who are SO uncomfortable saying "I don't know."

[kath_ballantyne]

Ugh. Yeah.
I hope the research continues and gets somewhere.

It's interesting to see. But it looks like it will be at least a year before the test is available.
Well I guess I've been dealing with this for almost 20 years so I guess I can wait another year.

I've had three doctors tell me that nothing was wrong, two tell me there was nothing they could do once I found out I didn't have arthritis and one doc that kept forgetting what we'd tried and what we were up to.

Hopefully if this proves something the doctors will be educated on it.