Chronic Fatigue Syndrome—Science and Controversy

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome—Science and Controversy

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome—Science and Controversy
by Martin Enserink on 21 September 2011, 3:36 PM 35 Comments

Two years ago, Science published a paper suggesting that a mouse retrovirus called XMRV might be involved in chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), a debilitating disease with no known cause. The study raised worries that XMRV might be spreading via blood donations. Since then, many other studies have failed to find XMRV in CFS patients, and some have suggested that the 2009 paper was the result of lab contamination.

Where does the science stand today? And how has the long and sometimes bitter debate affected the scientific field and CFS patients? Join us for a live chat on this page at 3 p.m. EDT on Thursday, 22 September, to discuss these and other questions with Michael Busch, a transfusion medicine scientist involved in XMRV research, and retrovirologist Jay Levy.

Source http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/09/live-chat-chronic-fatigue-syndro.html

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