That will obviously be a factor, and the weaknesses of the map have been pointed out before; one of the biggest problems in analysing geographical data is not knowing whether to collect (a) where you grew up or (b) where you first became ill. However, as Cloud pointed out earlier in this thread:
There are several other reasons for being interested in the connection with MS. One of the most intriguing is that MS has also become apparently epidemic in recent years. I wrote about this some months ago, and really must get round to collating some of my posts on this subject. From memory, the gist of it is this: there has been a sharp rise in atypical forms of MS and when you interpret the time-lags appropriately, the start of this rise dates back to about 1987. The "new" form of atypical MS disproprtionately affects women rather than men - 80% are female - whereas "traditional" MS is about 50-50 but affects slightly more men. The geographical spread of MS is far better researched than that of ME/CFS of course, and there is no real dispute about that data: MS definitely affects people who grew up in the specific parts of the world that we are talking about here. At some point I would like to dig into more detail in comparing these two cluster maps because if the detailed picture also matches well, that would be quite compelling evidence.
Final note that the "mold theory" and the "XMRV theory" are NOT incompatible, especially remembering that the WPI and John Coffin have always said that there almost certainly need to be co-factors to XMRV infection. My own 'big picture' theory, which I haven't brought together yet in writing, incorporates both XMRV and toxic mold, as well as IBS, MS, IBS, FM, GWI (all of which are basically ideopathic neurological/immune disorders), and much more besides. It's just a theory of course, but it does synthesise all the available information I've found, on this site and elsewhere.
