My point with the VZV was mostly in response to
@Valentijn, that at least in a few cases (HHV6 / VZV), I produce normal antibodies to herpes viruses. I would expect the general population to show similar results to mine.
@Valentijn makes an interesting point though about whether it's possible that someone like me has EBV but isn't producing antibodies anymore - I suppose it's possible.
I don't believe there is anything really unique about us and herpes viruses. I think we just have the same viruses with the same frequency as everyone else.
My VZV titers didn't drop as far as I know - it's not something I've tested that much. They were normal though (although lab would say abnormal in that they indicate exposure to the virus, and "normal" would be no exposure, which by my age is almost unheard of).
My own belief is that herpes viruses are just red herrings for ME patients and have nothing to do with our illness. I think there are a few factors that led to this happening. First, I think it goes back to Dr. Strauss at the NIH not wanting to accept he had a brain tumor and experiencing seizures, instead trying to blame his CFS on EBV - he later died of that brain tumor though (read Byron Hyde's personal accounts of this).
The other factor is that we get a lot of blood tests. Most come back normal. The first things that will usually jump out as abnormal (and be flagged as such by the lab) are elevated titers for common herpes viruses like VZV and HHV6. As a result, patients think this is really abnormal, when what would be more abnormal is to have no evidence of exposure to VZV or HHV6 (although the lab would mark this as normal).
Lastly, EBV has long been associated with prolonged fatigue (with mono / glandular fever) lasting months after infection, and because our disease was so unfortunately named, many docs jumped to EBV as being the case of fatigue. It was a reasonable hypothesis, but over time, studies failed to show any connection with ME. Ultimately we must think scientifically and toss out theories that are scientifically refuted. Holding on to bad theories just hurts us because we can't get to the root of the problem.
In summary, I don't think herpes viruses are important to ME pathogenesis, other than that they, like other infectious and non-infectious causes, can serve as the initial trigger. I feel we've wasted too much time and too many resources hunting for a mystery pathogen that is not there.