Jenna’s Lyme Blog

The following is taken directly from Columbia.edu.

A fascinating and potentially very important study has recently come out in the journal Science.

The study reports on the discovery that 68% of patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) carry the XMRV virus as compared to 3.7% of those without CFS.

Further work reported in the New York Times indicates that the virus has been found in 98% of patients with CFS. The discovery of this retrovirus, if confirmed by other research groups, suggests that this virus is either the cause or an important secondary factor in CFS.

This finding has implications for Lyme research as it is possible that patients who carry this virus when co-infected with Lyme go on to have persistent symptoms because: a) of activation of the latent virus; b) infection with Lyme or another tick-borne disease lowers the immune surveillance making the individual more susceptible to “catch” the virus; or c) the presence of the virus and the spirochete together act synergistically to induce an array of illness symptoms or to prevent eradication or control of either organism.

In any case, given that the symptoms of CFS are so similar to the symptoms of patients with chronic persistent Lyme symptoms, especially shared problems with fatigue and cognition, research in this area may shed important light on the mechanisms underlying the perpetuation of chronic symptoms. In terms of treatment, if this virus is thought to be causal, then retroviral treatments that are used for treating HIV may be very helpful for patients with chronic persistent symptoms.

NOTE:  If you suffer from neurocognitive and/or neuropsychiatric symptoms which may be due to Lyme or another tick-borne disease, please consider coming for the two-day, outpatient, second-opinion evaluation at the Lyme and Tick-Borne Diseases Evaluation Service.  For further information, please contact Dr. Kathy Corbera at (212) 543-6508.  Inasmuch as the evaluation is comprehensive and a limited number of patients can be seen each week to accommodate the large volume of requests for appointments, it might be several weeks before your telephone call is returned to set up your appointment.  There is a waiting list.  We appreciate your patience.

Similar Posts:

• Discovery of New Retrovirus XMRV Brings Hope to Millions of Sufferers.
• Who Gets The Grants For Chronic Lyme Disease?
• XMRV: Will The Baby Be Thrown Out With The Bath Water
• Hopeful Strategy For Reducing The Spread Of Lyme
• IDSA Creates Black Thursday For Those Suffering With Chronic Lyme Disease
• A New Vaccine For Lyme Disease From Tick Saliva?
• How Do Medical Doctors Breathe With Their Heads In The Sand?
• Could There be a New Vaccine for Lyme Disease?
• A Miracle: Building More Killer Cells For Chronic Lyme Disease
• New Treatment for Lingering Neuropathic Pain

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Posted on January 21st, 2010 under Chronic Lyme Disease • Tags: Lyme testing, Neurological Lyme Testing. •  Email This Post • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback