Hope for people with chronic fatigue

17 million people around the world are tormented by chronic fatigue syndrome. Could the discovery of a virus be the cause of the disease opening hope for treatment?

Chronic fatigue syndrome (myalgic encephalomyelitis) is often referred to as yuppie flu, which has been around since the 1980s. Patients who suffer from severe illnesses still feel tired and have muscle aches.

Is chronic fatigue syndrome merely a physical fatigue?

So far the exact cause of ME is still a mystery. Scientists suspect whether ME disease is merely physical fatigue?

Prospects…

A recent study published in Science reports that the XMRV virus may be the cause of the disease. British scientists found the virus in 68 of 101 patients with ME. In contrast, only 8 out of 218 healthy people get the virus.

Cell culture experiments show that XRMV is very contagious. The lead researcher, Dr. Judy Mikovits, says we can infect the pathogen through blood transfusions and body fluids.

XRMV is a virus belonging to the retro virus group, the virus group causes symptoms of neurological, cancer and immune system decline.

A spokesman for ME Research Investment said that in such a short time, it was a great step to bring hope to all people with ME and their families.

The potential for developing antiviral drugs to treat the disease is hopeful for about 17 million people worldwide with chronic fatigue syndrome.

And debate

However, experts note that the study does not ascertain the relationship between XMRV virus and ME disease.

Chronic fatigue syndrome is an extremely complex disease caused by many causes.

Dr. Richard Gruneward, a neuroscientist advisor at Sheffield Practice Hospital, said the idea that all chronic fatigue syndrome caused by a single virus sounds unreliable for most those who work in the industry.

Peter Spencer, Executive Director of Action for ME said it is still too early for us to be happy but the new discovery has brought great hope to the majority of patients.