The following is from a blog post by Autism advocate David Kirby in
which he interviews Dr. Thomas Insel, Director of the National
Institute of Mental Health and Chair of the federal government's
Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC). In response to a
question on XMRV, Dr. Insel states the following-
"I also asked Dr. Insel about the recent discovery that a retrovirus,
XMRV, had been found in 98% of all patients with chronic fatigue
syndrome. Some researchers say the virus may be implicated in autism,
as well.
"We are hot on that, and I wish I could tell you more," Insel said.
"All I can tell you is that we have an intramural program here which
is kind of our home team, which has seen about 400 kids with autism
over the last couple of years. And they have been looking at
regression; they've been looking at recovery." He said the researchers
"jumped on the XMRV thing even before it was published."
Dr. Insel said that he had heard that researchers at the University of
Nevada had identified XMRV in about 40% of ASD children studied. "I
have been trying to track that," he said. "There is a paper that has
been submitted, but I haven't been able to get it, and I don't know
what the data look like. But I think this is really interesting.""
The entire post can be found at-
'David Kirby: Dr. Insel on Rising ASD Numbers: No Question About
Environmental Factors'
December 20, 2009
http://www.ageofautism.com/2009/12/...no-question-about-environmental-factors-.html