Friday, October 9, 2009

Discovery: XMRV Retrovirus Linked to CFS


Image of XMRV from Whittemore Peterson Institute

Wow! This discovery is all over the news. Check out these articles:

Scientific American "Retrovirus Linked to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Could Aid in Diagnosis"

National Cancer Institute "Consortium of Researchers Discover Retroviral Link to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome"

Medical News Today "Retrovirus Linked To Chronic Fatigue Syndrome"

New York Times "Virus Is Found in Many With Chronic Fatigue Syndrome"

Reuters "Study isolates virus in chronic fatigue sufferers"

The Independent "Has Science Found the Cause of ME?"

Nature "Virus linked to chronic fatigue syndrome"

NPR "Virus Linked To Chronic Fatigue Syndrome" (includes link to audio recording)

ABC News Video "CFS Linked to XMRV Virus" (approx 1 minute)

CFIDS Association "Landmark CFS research reported in Science magazine"

BBC "ME virus discovery raises hopes"

US News and World Report "Retrovirus May Be at Root of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome"

The Australian "Chronic fatigue linked with virus"

The Wall Street Journal "The Virus That Links Prostate Cancer & Chronic Fatigue Syndrome"

Telegraph "Most cases of chronic fatigue syndrome linked to virus"

The Washington Post "Virus Associated With Chronic Fatigue Syndrome"

WebMD "Retrovirus Linked to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome"

Whittemore Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease: Overview and Q&A about their research

This post is short because I'm on my lunch break. I'll add new links as I find them.

Update: The list of articles goes on and on. Too many to list! I can't even express in words how much hope this gives me...

Today's Activities: work. Today's Most Annoying Symptoms: exhaustion, muscle fatigue, nausea, itching.

Mood (10 is best): 9
Energy (10 is best): 3
Physical Discomfort (10 is worst): 4

8 comments:

Joanne said...

It is such wonderful news and hopefully now will push efforts forward into getting to the bottom of this horrendous illness.

Interesting that the virus originates in animals and is not airborne. One has to wonder can it be passed like Lyme Disease by ticks or other biting insects.

Many with Lyme have co infections and problems with virus so some are treated with a combination of anti virals and antibiotics.

Sue Jackson said...

Hopefully the research will lead to some concrete treatments, but even if it doesn't, isn't this media coverage amazing?? That alone will benefit CFS research! I've had (non-CFS) friends calling and e-mailing to ask if I heard the news - it's everywhere!

Sue

upnorth said...

Thanks for posting all the links Alyson. I can't help but be really excited by this. Like Sue said, it's all over the news so friends and fam. are seeing it too.

I've always been told I have a very "viral" case of M.E./cfs....I can't wait to get tested.

When I get some high-speed access I'll check out some of the radio/video links.

alyson said...

This is all so exciting!!!

M. said...

My own article sets out to answer questions that others haven't: http://chronic-fatigue-syndrome.suite101.com/article.cfm/cfsme_and_retroviruses

cinderkeys said...

The media coverage has been pretty cool. I look forward to the day when the articles either don't mention the manufactured controversy over whether ME is a psychological disorder, or mention it as a thing of the past. Seems like EVERY time some biological link is discovered, the tone of the articles is, "Gosh golly gee, perhaps this isn't totally psychological after all."

alyson said...

M - Thanks for visiting my blog! Your article is informative. I've also added your blog to my blog list.

cinderkeys - I agree! I'm thrilled at the news coverage and the research, but I definitely get irked at the tone you mentioned.

Nicky Reiss said...

Thanks for posting all these links! It IS exciting!!

Nicky