XMRV in similar percentages of those with fibromyalgia atypical multiplesclerosi

[Guest guest]

IMPORTANT RESEARCH NEWS:

In what they're calling a landmark finding, scientists from the Whittemore

Institute announce they've discovered a retrovirus in the majority

of people with _chronic fatigue syndrome_

(http://chronicfatigue.about.com/od/whatischronicfatigue/a/what_is_CFS.htm)

(CFS or _ME/CFS_

(http://chronicfatigue.about.com/od/cfsglossary/g/MECFS.htm) ). The _study_

(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19815723?ordinalpos=1 & itool=EntrezSystem2.PE\

ntrez.Pubme

d.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum) was

recently published in the journal Science.

That study showed a virus called XMRV in the blood of 68 out of 101 ME/CFS

patients, compared to just 8 of 218 healthy people. Since the paper was

submitted for publication, however, researchers say they've further refined

their testing methods and have now been able to identify the virus in 95% of

those same blood samples from people with ME/CFS, and in similar

percentages of those with _fibromyalgia_

(http://chronicfatigue.about.com/od/whatisfibromyalgia/a/what_is_fms.htm) and

atypical _multiple sclerosis_

(http://ms.about.com/od/multiplesclerosis101/a/ms_intro.htm) .

Researchers say this finding shows that the retrovirus is a contributing

factor in these conditions. This is the first time XMRV has been isolated

from the blood, and also to show that it can be transmitted between blood

cells.

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