There has been a major breakthrough in the research into CFS with recognition of a new retrovirus – XMRV – at the Whittemore-Petersen Institute in the USA.  This work will now need to be replicated and validated in other laboratories.  Hopefully that will then lead to further research, availability of testing opportunities and then treatment.  At this stage it is too early to comment as to how long this could take. More importantly it is a major advance by highly respected scientists.

Meanwhile, the British ME Association has provided a very useful overview by Dr Charles Shepherd.  The points he raises apply similarly to our situation in New Zealand.

Rosamund Vallings MB BS. MNZM

There is a lot of interest being shown in this promising new research. It has generated is a lot of excitement in NZ and around the world from both ME/CFS groups and medical researchers. We have received numerous emails and phone calls. From these contacts with people, I have found this research has raised ME/CFS sufferer’s hopes of answers and then treatments for this illness. There are also some video releases, which are highlighted below, and the one from Professor Nancy Klimas is certainly worth watching.

ANZMES members will recall that Nancy Klimas visited New Zealand in 2006, during that time we visited Dr Mike Holmes who had worked at Otago University Micro Biology Department and had found retrovirus back in the early 1990s in the blood of those with ME/CFS, and had presented a paper on this in 1994 together with electron micrographs of the virus. Unfortunately due to ill health Dr Holmes was unable to publish all the research he completed. Another international specialist is now considering doing a review on this.

Heather Wilson  President ANZMES

I was away overseas when the exciting news about the association with the newly discovered XMRV virus and ME/CFS was released in the press. This is rather ironic as far as I am concerned if it turns out to be the definitive research finding required for an understanding of ME/CFS.

 I have assiduously followed research articles most days for the last 20 years and before this less regularly for 30 years plus and if it turns out I was sunning myself in Southern France at the time that something significant finally came out then this is an irony. But Southern France was quite nice too!

A good friend texted me with the news over there and although it was difficult to keep up with all that was coming out on it the news was no less exciting. It may be remembered by all of us sufferers in the future similarly to how people know where they were when any large world event was first released on the news.

But at the moment it is an exciting possibility only. It is not a scientific fact that XMRV is associated with ME/CFS and even less so that it causes it. We have to wait until the research is repeated by groups not connected with the Whittemore Peterson Institute. This is how science works.

There shouldn’t even be any argument currently over whether XMRV is significant in ME/CFS or not. There can't be until the validating studies are done. My guess is that the finding will probably turn out to be significant. But that is only a guess based on the impression that a retrovirus would be an ideal candidate for causing the symptoms and immune dysfunction of an illness like ME.

This has always been at the back of mind since Mike Holmes, New Zealand's own retrovirus researcher during the 1990s, explained this to me. Whether XMRV is the cause of ME/CFS or is an opportunistic pathogen in the disease also needs to be determined and this will take time. Showing that a pathogen 'causes' an illness is a complex business. To do so it must fulfil Koch’s Postulates - there are about 5 or 6 of these- most of which I unfortunately can’t remember from my Medical school days.

There will be a lot of follow up research now that will occur around the world. There is an enormous amount of characteristics which have to be identified about the virus and much that needs to be understood further about ME/CFS and its relationship to the virus. At least this recent finding has stimulated huge world-wide interest in CFS research again. Something that was urgently needed. But the research must be carefully and correctly carried out.

The true significance of XMRV has to be sorted out before further steps are taken. Imagine if treatments and ME/CFS theories based on XMRV were presented only to find in the future that XMRV was a mistake?

The believability of ME/CFS would be cast in doubt yet again and further research into our illness could be put back decades. This would be a disaster for all of us. So "slow and surely" has to be the way to go. Hopefully it won't be too long before we do know the answer though.

In the meantime you should all be "cautiously" celebrating.    

ANZMES would like to congratulate The Whittemore Peterson Institute and the work done there so far by Judy Mikovits and partners.      

   Dr Ken Jolly.      Medical Adviser to ANZMES

RETROVIRUS XMRV and ME/CFS
 British ME Association overview by Dr Charles Shepherd

To Read Click HERE

Video - This video link will take you to a complete page of
up to date video presentations on XMRV