The Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Advisory Committee (CFSAC) - Fall, 2009

The Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Advisory Committee (CFSAC) fall session was held on October 29-30, 2009.  Among the speakers were Dr. Peterson from the Whittemore Peterson Institute and Dr. Coffin, a retrovirus expert, from Tufts University. The main topic of discussion was the discovery of a possible link between the XMRV retrovirus and chronic fatigue syndrome. It will be exciting what these new findings mean for patients with CFS and if these important research findings can be reproduced.  While this discovery is important, it is important to remember, these results are preliminary and XMRV may just be a "piggy-back" virus. Even Dr. Peterson acknowledged that other co-factors almost certainly may play a part in CFS. In the past, several other viruses have been suggested as causing CFS. Many believe that it may be a variety of factors that stimulate the disease and there may be no "smoking gun" for this condition. For everyone's sake, let's hope not because it makes it all that much harder to treat. On a positive note, these findings bring more attention to CFS and will bring more funding for research.

Resources:

• CFSChronic Fatigue Syndrome Advisory Committee website.  Eventually, there will be copies of the webcast posted to download and view, but it may take a while to get it posted. As soon as it is posted, I will blog about it.
• Whittemore Peterson Institute