Whittemore Peterson Institute: XMRV: What's really important?

[alex3619]

HI muffin

This probably isn't the right thread, but something needs to be said about clusters. Every few years up until the early 90s there was a cluster outbreak. Several years had many cluster outbreaks, all over the world, not just one. I think one was 1955 or something, and the last was 1985. I think they aren't being reported now, but sometime there will be another mass cluster outbreak. Prior to the internet this could be ignored. When the next one happens, we should be all over the funding agencies, governments, etc. demanding serious funding.

Bye
Alex

Not so sure this is a new virus. May well be an old virus and only found in the mid 1980s and then again (maybe another or different strain,etc) again by WPI in 2008. We don't know. Look at the clusters that go way back to the 1930's. Also think I read somewhere that CFIDS had many names but same symptoms generally over the last 100 or so years.
We just don't know if this is an old or new virus. For what that was worth...

 

[Eric Johnson from I&I]

CFIDS had many names but same symptoms generally over the last 100 or so years

I've thought about it a bit, and read Dr Hyde's views on it (in his book). I'd say it's debatable whether the same disease existed already in 1900. I lean slightly toward 'yes', but I am not very far from 50/50.

 

[Levi]

XRMV is an old soul . . .

Well,

Microbiologists have been studying and publishing on XMRV's since the 1960's

http://vir.sgmjournals.org/cgi/reprint/52/1/189.pdf

Even Judy Mikovits seems to think that XMRV is not the complete answer;

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=chronic-fatigue-syndrome-retrovirus

"This new retrovirus may be able, through infecting human cells, [to] induce a transcription of an endogenous virus," says Huber, who has been studying the presence of an ancient retrovirus (HERV-K18) dormant in most people but active in patients with CFS and multiple sclerosis. "We've already shown that Epstein-Barr virus can do exactly this."

Even in their testing for the XMRV retrovirus, Mikovits says, "We could see a human endogenous virus at the same time" as XMRV. "There are a number of old diseases that seem to be rising at an infectious rate," she says. Although this background noise of various viruses may be difficult to sort though, it brings clues to help researchers find the root cause of CFS. "It's possible, downstream, that this will all feed into the same mechanism," Huber says.

HERV-K18 is probably tens of thousands of years old because, well, its endogenous.

I've thought about it a bit, and read Dr Hyde's views on it (in his book). I'd say it's debatable whether the same disease existed already in 1900. I lean slightly toward 'yes', but I am not very far from 50/50.

 

[Snow Leopard]

But no one asks that question because they aren't trying to find a psychosomatic reason for cancer.

As ridiculous as it sounds today, they did indeed to just that. For example, the cancers associated with peptic ulcer disease. We know how that turned out.

 

[VillageLife]

HI muffin

This probably isn't the right thread, but something needs to be said about clusters. Every few years up until the early 90s there was a cluster outbreak. Several years had many cluster outbreaks, all over the world, not just one. I think one was 1955 or something, and the last was 1985. I think they aren't being reported now, but sometime there will be another mass cluster outbreak. Prior to the internet this could be ignored. When the next one happens, we should be all over the funding agencies, governments, etc. demanding serious funding.

Bye
Alex

I think outbreaks were not aloud to be reported to the public from around the 90s!

 

[knackers323]

can anyone explain how an outbreak happens on some occasions and not others? If there is an infectious cause, how does it spread so much at certain times and nearly not at all at others

 

[V99]

I believe it may have something to do with the life cycle of the retrovirus. XMRV may have come from one mouse, or perhaps several, with outbreaks each time this happens. Alternatively it may be to do with hygiene. If a kid gets it in a school it probably spreads quickly, an individual in the country not so much. At certain times it may be more transmissible than at others, perhaps the first few weeks, or when you have another virus reactivating, or when they are not reactivating. There are lots of explanations to be explored to know why.

 

[alex3619]

Hi

I have wondered about this from time to time. I don't really know. I don't think it is because of different strains. I suspect it is very much to do with coinfections, and the wrong strain of EBV, for example, will trigger XMRV in a susceptible population much more often than other pathogens. This may be coupled with geographic factors in the distibution of XMRV.

Bye
Alex

can anyone explain how an outbreak happens on some occasions and not others? If there is an infectious cause, how does it spread so much at certain times and nearly not at all at others