The Whittemore Peterson Institute CFS - Retrovirus
Announcement
The Cause of CFS is a Retrovirus: In 2009, Dr Peterson, is probably one of the nicest and learned colleagues in the field of CFS, recently from the brand new, just opened, (?) multi-million dollar Whittemore Peterson Institute in Reno Nevada, announced overwhelming evidence that the cause of M.E. or CFS, is XMRV retrovirus. The XMRV mouse retrovirus occurred in 68% of the CFS patient’s blood samples and only 4% of non-CFS patients. Pretty convincing!
This retrovirus theory comes with a history: It was first raised as a possibility by the gay community at a symposium I attended in San Francisco in 1987 and again by Florida based researcher Dr DeFreitas in the early 1990s. Dr DeFreitas discussed this retrovirus theory in our textbook, The Clinical and Scientific Basis of M.E. /CFS.
At the very least, this retrovirus discovery is great free advertising for the Whittemore Peterson Institute. It will possibly bring them in many millions of dollars from, patients willing to be separated from their assets, generous charities and governments before the retrovirus theory is once again thrown into the garbage bin. I should add that incubation period of XMRV is up to 21 days which makes it impossible to cause an epidemic illness.
One theory to explain this “new” finding is that XMRV is a mouse virus and since many research institutes have tens of thousands of mice, cross contamination of specimens are inevitable.
The Cause of CFS is Human Herpes Viruses 6 & 7: In June 2008 I was paid by the Swiss pharmaceutical company, ROCHE to attend a symposium on CFS in Baltimore, Maryland. There were well over 100 “eminent” speakers from around the world, all the speakers except for a salaried researcher from the Canadian Government Viral Detection Laboratory in Winnipeg stated they found Human Herpes 6 & 7 in the 70-80% of all CFS patients but not in healthy controls. Now I am under the opinion that the technology for demonstrating HHV 6 & 7 may be under copyright to a USA laboratory. It is also possible they give cash or free travel grants to University researchers who can prove the HHV-CFS association but not to those who do not find this association. It is my belief that the US laboratory which sponsored this Symposium has the copyright of this test.
Whether money is changed hands or not, if I am correct, such a symposium with over 100 research papers could ultimately bring in several million dollars or more a year of royalties to this laboratory. Also, Roche Pharmaceuticals who paid my way along with 8 of the other researchers, one from the Whittemore Peterson Institute, were offering a carrot of 30 million dollars in research grants to the ten researchers and myself who would treat CFS patients with their new Herpes Virus anti-viral. Dr Peterson, the Whittemore- Peterson researcher was one of the ten at this private meeting with me. (I think Peterson would say a subset). He too stated that he found conclusive evidence that the cause of CFS was HHV 6 & 7. I was the only invitee who told the Roche representatives that they were wasting their money. If ROCHE had funded the Whittemore Peterson it might have been financial suicide, to then state that the XMRV retrovirus was the cause of CFS.
The Cause of CFS is an Enterovirus: In 2007, the son of California Infectious Disease specialist, Dr John Chia fell ill with M.E. He also complained of stomach pain. Dr Chia examined his son’s stomach and saw an infection that when biopsied, turned out to be a Coxsackie enterovirus. This is a virus in the same family as poliovirus. This is the same virus family associated with the Akureyri Iceland epidemics in 1947. It is the same group of viruses associated with the M.E. pandemic in Canada in 1984-1986. There is no money to be made with this virus since there is no patent on it and it is difficult to recover. In four of the sixty M.E. Epidemics an enterovirus was recovered. In over 50 other epidemics, no virus was recovered but the average incubation period of the infection in these epidemics was 3-6 days, as it is in all enterovirus infections. HHV6 has an incubation period of 10-12 days. The EBV incubation period is 40 days.
So in three consecutive years, 2007, 2008 and 2009 three absolutely certain causes of CFS were announced.
3a: What are my opinions of the cause of M.E.?
A: In epidemics or Clusters: any virus that attacks the brain that has a short incubation period of 2-6 days can provoke epidemics of acute onset disease. This excludes HHV6 & 7, EBV, and HMRV with 10 to 40 day incubation periods. Among common viral infections, enteroviruses & influenza viruses with a 2-6 day incubation period can fit this epidemic possibility or any milder encephalitic viruses. In both Epidemic and Sporadic Illness the overwhelming majority are patients are in the health care and teaching professions, both in daily contact with infectious disease.
B: Sporadic (individual) acute onset cases of M.E.: any infectious, traumatic, or immunization agent causing diffuse low grade diffuse brain injury or encephalopathy can cause M.E. This can be due to epidemic viruses such as enteroviruses and influenza viruses or non-epidemic viruses such as Epstein Barr Virus in Adults:
1. The enteroviruses infections Coxsackie, ECHO and numbered enteroviruses but also Varicella (chicken pox) in adults and EBV in adults. I have never had a case of chronic EBV last longer than 3 years. (!)
2. Any number of infectious agents capable of causing an encephalopathy. (Viruses infecting children and youths tend to have a less injurious action on the brain than the same viral infection affecting adults over 25.)
3. Certain immunizations given to some adults, but particularly Recombinant
Hepatitis B (RHHB) and Influenza immunizations can cause M.E., even when not contaminated as in the Chiron influenza immunization. This causal link may be due to the fact they are two of the few immunizations that adults receive frequently. Chronic illness such as M.E. can occur if the patient is travelling or in contact with minor infectious agents in the 3-week period following any immunization. The trick is never to receive any immunization immediately prior to travel, particularly to a third world country.
