XMRV – WHERE DO WE STAND

As most of you know, 4 papers were published in the journal of Retroviroligy while a 5^th commented on them pointing out how easy it is to contaminate lab experiments involving the XMRV virus. The authors themselves disagreed on the interpretation of their data.  One senior author stated that he just wanted to point out how easy it is to test positive for XMRV, even if the person is actually negative, if a tiny bit of the mouse DNA gets into the sample tested.

 There is no need to get upset about these findings in the latest papers as it did not prove the other studies who did find the retrovirus wrong.  It only means that those testing the XMRV samples need to be extremely careful because of the possibility of contamination.  Something that researchers are very well aware of and don’t need to be reminded of.

The way to look at the latest findings is that they are doing research and that for any negatives found, the researchers who are way ahead of this research, can easily rectify any negatives that are being thrown in the way of solving the problem of XMRV.  No one would be going through all this trouble if they had actual proof that it doesn’t exist.

Take pride in the fact that we are being taken seriously and research is ongoing.  We know that both XMRV and MLV has been found.  Scientists are hard at work to discover what these findings mean in regards to ME/CFS and what role, if any, it plays in the illness.  Once that is established, the research on treatment can go full speed ahead.

Hang in there everyone, we are getting there.

 Lydia