Vaccines and ME
The only large vaccine study I know of with regards to ME should have been asking more questions (
PubMed ID 18984023). I think the risk of getting ME as a consequence of vaccines is low. 99% or so of the time it will go fine. So, what they did in the study was to ask the patients if they had ME almost
twenty years after the vaccines where given. I that time frame, it's no surprise that they didn't find such a big difference between those who had been vaccinated and those who were not. It's only natural that in that time frame, people from both the vaccinated and non vaccinated groups had got ME as a result of other things. So, it's no surprise that they got an adjusted odds ratio of only 1.06 for getting ME for those who had been vaccinated.
What they ought to have asked, is: "
The year following the vaccine, were you unable to work, study or socialize", and within the group which said yes, ask if they got a ME diagnose later. Ask the same question to the control group, for the same year. If they'd asked those questions, I am sure there would have been a statistically significant difference (although not that large, because in most cases people will do fine following a vaccine). But IMO, vaccines seems like one of many triggers.
Giardiasis and ME
Some years ago, there was a massive outbreak of ME in Bergen, Norway. Everyone in the city knows it. Many know, indirectly or directly, someone who's ill. It was as a consequence of a water poisoning (giardia). Professor Mella and doctor Fluge are both from Bergen, and they know very well about this. In the London presentation Mella talks about this as one of the riddles of ME, and that to find out what's behind the disease, one must have an answer as to why such different things as EBV and giardia can cause outbreaks of ME. It seemed like he took it for granted that everyone in the audience knew about the ME outbreaks following giardia, but I guess it's not well known in the ME community worldwide. Writing the GIRA theory, and the three big questions, I also took it for granted that everyone knew that giardia can cause ME outbreak. It's a pity that in the one study there is with regards to this, they asked only if the patients had 'chronic fatigue' three years following the giardiasis (
PubMed ID 21911849). They found that chronic fatigue was reported by 46.1% of the exposed group and 12.0% of the controls. They should have asked if they now, three years following the giardiasis, had CCC CFS - as a
very big share of those who got sick following the outbreak do.
EBV and giardiasis, why can they trigger ME, what do they have in common
I think that in order to find a model for this syndrome, one question must be answered, and that's why such different things - seemingly with little in common - can trigger the syndrome. If it indeed is a retroviral component in ME, as I see it, it would have to be one which lies latent, and gets triggered my these events. If anyone sees it otherwise, please do argue for it.
If a retrovirus lies latent in a vast number of people, it would have to get there somehow. The normal thing is that one gets infected, and ill immediately as the body mounts an immune response to the intruder. But, we have not identified any plausible transmission routes. If it is something we all have latent, it's much more likely it's something akin to the human endogenous retrovirus W, which is also a gammaretrovirus. If gammaretroviruses are at the core of ME, I find it hard to see how they could be exogenous. If they are exogenous, it also doesn't make sense that they are triggered by among other things EBV.
