And another from the CFSⁱ site ProHealth:

http://www.prohealth.com/library/showarticle.cfm?libid=14915

JeanneRoz

But, how is this retrovirus treated? None of the articles I've read mention appropriate treatment.

Hi Mackintosh.  The treatment is not yet determined.  They are first going to try treating it similarly to HIV, which is also a retrovirus.  Of course, none of us know yet whether we actually really have it or not.  They are working on a test to be available in approximately six months.  Since this retrovirus is also connected to prostateⁱ cancer and has been determined to be infectious (although they don't know exactly how it's transmitted yet), the research is going to be on the fast track.  We should be hearing more in the coming months.

If it turns out any of us have this retrovirus, we may still need to keep treating the Cpnⁱ now that it's taken over in our bodies.  I'm certainly not thinking about stopping.

Could be, but it's a newly discovered retrovirus, not just a virus.  The researchers admit they don't know whether having XMRV is the cause of people having prostateⁱ cancer or ME/CFSⁱ or whether having prostate cancer or ME/CFS allows a person to become infected with the retrovirus.  It might be just another opportunistic invader, or it might be what caused our immuneⁱ systems to not allow us to clear the other infectionsⁱ or keep them in check.  Nobody knows these answers yet, but the further research should certainly be intriguing. 

I agree that it's all a big question mark right now.  It's just that this is something entirely new and could have implications for some of the other illnesses that have been on the increase in the past couple of decades.  I can tell you that on ME/CFS forums, people are excited and frightened at the same time.  There simply are not any further answers right now, but the POSSIBLE implications for our illness are mindblowing.  If it turns out to be nothing once again, then that will be that, but I think we can allow people to feel a bit of excitement that ME/CFS is once again making news and that the government will now finally be interested in researching what may turn out to be very important to those of us who have it. 

That's all.

Can't even go there with the CDC. I did research on this for a film and let's just say there was more than a cover-up. Real research, not conspiracy gossip. I look forward to seeing where this goes. My bet is nowhere. I think the whole retrovirus idea is a red herring. Been there, definitely done that. They proposed this in the 80's and got nowhere with Elaine Defrietas. You really have to do the research and look into the HIV fiasco to know what I am speaking of. I think they will find that a bacterial co-factor is really what opens the pandora's box.

I think the XMRVS finding is huge.  97% of CFSⁱ study patients tested positive for active XMRVS or antibodies.

http://www.wpinstitute.org/xmrv/index.html

It is possible that XMRVS  impaires our immuneⁱ systems, with  chronic Cpnⁱ, EBVⁱ, HHV6, Mycoplasm, Lyme, etc. all opportunistic collateral infectionsⁱ. 

 

 

I think you are wrong about that. There are many people in the wastebasket diagnosis of CFSⁱ with different infectionsⁱ. Take for example my case: I was diagnosed with CFS. But many years later I saw an LLMD who asked me the sequence of events before I became ill. I described numbness on the right side of my face (Bells Palsy), light sensitivity, heart irregularities, flu symptoms and night sweats. All clearly Lyme symptoms (I grew up on a farm in NY). Once I began treating I responded very dramatically to antibiotics and have recovered my life. If I had stuck with the CFS diagnosis I would be chasing a virus with no cure in sight. I am sure there are many out there who have a retrovirus, Cpnⁱ, Mycoplasma, etc etc....but to say this is all caused by a retrovirus is very premature. As I said before, Elaine Defrietas was telling everyone this in the 80's. Read Oslers Web. See UNDER OUR SKIN. A retrovirus means a life of antivirals with no cure. I have spoken with patients who have been using them for quite some time and they relapse just like many do when they go off the abxⁱ. We are still looking at a plethora of pathogens here and no one knows which one opens Pandoras box. For some a tick bite, for others an airborne pathogen, etc...

I will be very interesting to watch what happens politically. Just claiming that CFSⁱ is a retrovirus could cause quite a ripple through the world of science and the public at large. Just think of a group that encompasses Fibromyalgiaⁱ, CFS, MSⁱ, ALS, etc...and labeling them positive under one retrovirus like HIV, that could really cause some panic. This is transferred by fluids, blood and may require a lifetime of antiviral treatment to keep it under control. Hopefully people will get better, but at worst there could be some very bad ramifications here. If you really do the reading what they are saying is a contagious form of Cancer (like HPV), which makes a hell of alot of sense. Unfortunately the cure is still not there.

I think it is both fantastic and terrible that a little organization funded by a CFSⁱ patient's mother has found a possible link to CFS. It is great to have another possible piece to the puzzle, yet terrible there seems to be very little research going on for CFS.

 

I have put my donation in to the wpi institute that found this virus and hope others will too.

 

http://www.wpinstitute.org/help/help_donation.html

>I wonder what the real fathers of CFSⁱ, like Paul Cheney, David Bell and Daniel Petersen feel about this discovery?

Someone already mentioned Dr Cheney is on board with this and Dr Petersen is a key part of the institute that discovered this virus. And here is what Dr Bell has to say:

http://www.davidsbell.com/

"Now I am not going to be too optimistic - I think XMRV is going to turn out to be the "cause" of ME/CFS, and I think treatments will be available from every family physician in America who accepts Medicare. The question is whether this occurs next year or twenty years from now."

"The "Two Hit" Theory has been circulating for twenty years. One hit is an immuneⁱ altering silent hit, and the second is a herpes virus or some other agent. Actually herpes viruses can carry retroviruses along, so here is more work for the Whittemore-Peterson Institute to do."