Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. What does this mean for the blood supply?*
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New hope and new worries
Researchers in Reno may have identified the retrovirus responsible for
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. What does this mean for the blood supply?
BY JACK JOHNSON >> JACKJOHNSON702@HOTMAIL.COM
Researchers in Reno say they've discovered a virus that may cause Chronic
Fatigue Syndrome, a discovery that may have implications for people who need
blood transfusions. But officials are urging caution while more research is
done.
The journal Science published a report Oct. 8 by researchers from Reno's
nonprofit Whittemore Peterson Institute, the National Cancer Institute and
the Cleveland Clinic. The article says a recently discovered human
retrovirus -- dubbed XMRV -- was found in the blood of 67 percent of a group
of patients diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and 3.7 percent of
healthy control patients. Follow-up studies by the researchers found about
98 percent of 300 Chronic Fatigue Syndrome patients tested positive for the
XMRV retrovirus.
XMRV was first discovered in human prostate cancer in 2005. XMRV and the
virus that causes AIDS are in the same family.
At an Oct. 29 conference, Tufts University retrovirus expert John Coffin
told a Department of Health and Human Services committee this discovery was
of "potentially extraordinary importance."
This means two things. First, it means validation and hope for millions
suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, often thought by many to be nothing
more than the product of neurosis and even laziness. Chronic Fatigue
Syndrome has long been thought to be linked to a retroviral infection, but
unlike AIDS, a retrovirus hasn't been isolated until now.
But this discovery also has implications for the blood supply. Hardly
anything is known about XMRV's relationship to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome,
cancer or anything else, but some experts raise concerns about the
possibility of this as-yet-unscreened retrovirus being in blood banks.
The medical director for all United Blood Services locations in Las Vegas
said she wasn't aware of the Science article. A Southern Nevada Health
District spokesperson declined to speak on this "speculative" topic.
Dr. Michael Busch, Director of the Blood Systems Research Institute, the
research arm of United Blood Services' parent company, Blood Systems, says,
"It's not that we're keeping anything secret, but there's no reason to alarm
anyone." Blood Systems also serves as the central lab for the National
Institutes of Health blood safety network.
Busch says that every year or so, a potentially blood-transferable virus is
identified with preliminary data associating it with disease, but "most of
the time these things don't evolve to be a serious problem."
Still, the Science article has spurred his organization into a collaborative
effort with a number of government organizations, including the Centers for
Disease Control, the National Institutes of Health, and the Food and Drug
Administration. They're launching a research initiative to figure out how
prevalent the XMRV retrovirus is in the blood donor population. That study
will start with a Whittemore Peterson Institute collaboration in Reno, where
1,000 healthy donors' blood will be screened by multiple labs. Busch
estimates it will take up to six months to see how prevalent XMRV is in the
blood supply, and another six months to fully develop and get FDA approval
of a test for screening, if they determine one is needed.
Hillary Johnson says it should happen sooner rather than later. She is the
author of Osler's Web, a 1996 book that accused the medical establishment of
ignoring the spread of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
"We're kinda in a shakedown period, where the government is frantically
trying to get a test together, but it's not going to happen overnight." She
adds, "The discovery of XMRV is certainly as big a story as AIDS, and if
it's not now, it's going to be."
Blood Systems Research Institute's Busch urged caution in a follow-up e-mail
to CityLife.
" ... I do think that persons with diagnosed CFS should probably refrain
from donating until specific studies are conducted to establish whether XMRV
is causally linked to CFS and the virus is present in healthy donors and
transmitted by transfusions. These studies [will] evolve quickly over the
next 3-12 months."
http://www.lasvegascitylife.com/articles/2009/11/19/news/local_news/iq_32512195.txt
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