It's like a best daydream, and worst nightmare, all rolled into one. The daydream is that the cause of ME/CFS (myalgic encephalomyelitis / chronic fatigue syndrome) would be found, the nightmare is that the ramifications of the discovery boggle the mind.
In the October 8th, 2010 issue of the journal Science, the Whittemore Peterson Institute published their discovery of a link between the retrovirus XMRV (xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus) and the neuro-immune disease, ME/CFS.
http://www.wpinstitute.org/xmrv/docs/wpi_pressrel_100809.pdf
That's the daydream - finding a virus that could very well be the cause of ME/CFS. The nightmare begins with the list of other diseases that seem to be related to this same virus....prostate cancer, multiple sclerosis, Lyme disease, certain types of lymphomas, breast cancer, Gulf War Illness, autism....
This is a potential public health crisis, and there are many questions that need to be answered, and answered fast. Does XMRV cause disease? If so, which ones? How is it transmitted? How prevalent is it in the healthy population? What are the possible treatments available now? How quickly can new treatments, aimed specifically at XMRV, be made available?
ME/CFS has been left unchecked for over 25 years, allowed to spread until millions of people all over the world are ill. Now is the time to put serious money into the research. We need to get those questions answered!
Donations to the Whittemore Peterson Institute maybe be made here:
http://www.wpinstitute.org/help/help_donation.html
Links to more info:
blood donor bans:
http://mcwpa.org/in-the-news/blood-donor-bans/
XMRV and leukemia/lymphoma:
http://www.wpinstitute.org/news/docs/Snyderman_XMRV.pdf
XMRV and prostate cancer:
http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.ppat.0020025
