I am certain I inherited some sort of genetic weakness from my mother, even though she does not have CFS. She has multiple allergies, some very severe, and I have also had multiple allergies since birth, and we share many of the same ones. For example maternal grandmother, mother, and I all get severe hayfever, and my mom developed a milk allergy (not lactose intolerance) even though she was raised on a farm drinking "organic" raw milk! Since birth milk has been one of my worst allergies. I also had chronic ear infections and consequently partial hearing loss as a child, and literally couldn't breath through my nose until I was about 9. Allergies also tend to run in my maternal extended family, as well as a B-12 deficiency, even under more optimal and natural living conditions than most people have. I also have celiac disease, which is known to have a genetic pre-disposition. All these things point to some undefined genetic weakness, yet I am the only person in my family or extended family with CFS.
I don't think I had any blood contact. None of the obvious routes (transmissions or transplants) and while I did roughhouse a lot and thus got a lot of scrapes as a kid I can remember only one time when someone else tended to the wound for me; I tended to keep to myself. I was hospitalized in Cameroon with an I.V. once, and I suppose it's possible that they used a dirty needle, but we knew the people running the hospital and unlike another Cameroonian hospital I can think of this one was a tight ship. I don't believe the missionary doctor who led it would have neglected to ensure that basic protocols like sterile needles were followed.
Saliva is a possibility for me, though quite remote. I'm told I did kiss someone on the mouth as a kid (though I don't remember), and believe it or not I've never kissed anyone on the mouth since! (It's by choice; no need to feel sorry for me.) However I have shared food from the same plate or ther such saliva-on-food tansfers, mostly between imemdiate family but sometimes with family friends too. I found it slightly disgusting so I didn't do it often, only when the situation called for it. If XMRV is spread by saliva then I've probably given it to a lot of people, since I was always the one who couldn't finish her food and had someone else eat it for me.
Vector-borne, in combination with the genetic weakness, is the most likely mode of transmission for me. My family went camping and backpacking a lot, and then livin gin the bush in Cameroon for several years resulted in all kinds of bites. Multiple bouts (more than I remember to count) with malaria and one bout of dengue fever shows just how many mosquito bites got through, despite our attempts. I also had a tick feeding on my scalp all night once, and actually haven't gotten around to probperly testing for Lyme yet. Ticks were extremely common where we were...our cat would be covered with them, perhaps about 20 on its face at any given day. We'd pick them off sometimes. The chickens didn't seem to get them. I suppose it's possible that the cat got it from the ticks and then I had a blood transmission with the cat, but since I had a life-threatening allergic reaction to cats I didn't play with it too often. But that jsut gives you an idea of how many ticks there were there. Any cat got covered with them, to the point where you though it was just part of their fur.
Anyway, one thing I'm really curious about is whether or not my sister is XMRV positive, if I turn out to be. We're close in age and were exposed to the same things, and were often sick at the same time together with the exact same thing, so it's a helpful indicator. However she does not have the same genetic weakness that I do; she was a healthy kid and has few or no allergies. However, she has had some health problems, but I haven't been privy to all the details. She does not want anything to do with CFS. So I don't know much, but I do think it's possible that she is XMRV-positive, and if we both are I would venture a guess that it was vector-borne and aquired while in Cameroon, or at least triggered there. I would also surmise that the reason she has not become as ill as I from it is because she never had the genetic weakness and rough start that I did.
But all this is just guesswork. All I know for sure is what transmission it isn't and probably isn't, and all this without even knowing whether or not I'm XMRV-positive!
Sometimes I wonder why I bother to spend my energy on these sorts of things...but then I remember that the process was interesting and the thought was stimulating in an enjoyable manner, and that's enough for me to make it worthwhile.
