Chronic fatigue, guilt of a virus?

2009/10/13 Lakar Iraizoz, Oihane - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Mikrobiologia
• Anatomia/Fisiologia
• Osasuna

Chronic fatigue may be caused by a retrovirus. In an investigation conducted in the United States, 101 patients affected by chronic fatigue have been analyzed, and two in three have seen a virus called XMRV. We also analyzed 218 healthy people at the Whittemore Peterson Institute in Nevada, of whom only 4% found viruses.

They are exhausted, have problems of concentration and memory, muscle and joint aches, etc. These symptoms occur in patients with chronic fatigue. However, many times these symptoms are attributed to the inability to properly carry stress, not only to a disease, but also to doctors, people and patients themselves.

The discovery of the virus could help to consider chronic fatigue as a serious disease. To do this, they must demonstrate that the virus causes the disease. In the mouse they have already seen that a group of viruses very similar to XMRV causes cancer and neurological and immunological diseases.

Image: Image: Whittemore Peterson Institute