mezombie
Senior Member
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From the research section of the latest CFIDSlink, the CAA's e-newsletter (http://www.cfids.org/cfidslink/2009/120202.asp
Many readers may not realize the incredibly competitive and political nature of science. To most of the CFS medical and research community, the XMRV finding published in Science was a surprise announcement. While many investigators were cautiously optimistic and excited about how this could be a game-changing finding, some were ready to “pack up and go home” – mostly because the media blitz read like a “case closed” Sherlock Holmes novel. It takes only a brief review of lessons learned from other remarkable discoveries like HIV to understand that detecting a virus is the beginning. If the XMRV finding is replicated in other CFS populations, validated to be the cause of CFS, and the FDA reviews the quality of XMRV diagnostic tests, then we can “check off” objective diagnosis from our to do list! XMRV is a new beginning, not the end.
Many readers may not realize the incredibly competitive and political nature of science. To most of the CFS medical and research community, the XMRV finding published in Science was a surprise announcement. While many investigators were cautiously optimistic and excited about how this could be a game-changing finding, some were ready to “pack up and go home” – mostly because the media blitz read like a “case closed” Sherlock Holmes novel. It takes only a brief review of lessons learned from other remarkable discoveries like HIV to understand that detecting a virus is the beginning. If the XMRV finding is replicated in other CFS populations, validated to be the cause of CFS, and the FDA reviews the quality of XMRV diagnostic tests, then we can “check off” objective diagnosis from our to do list! XMRV is a new beginning, not the end.