Sat Nov 21 2009
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A virus recently linked to prostate cancer is a new suspect in chronic fatigue syndrome. Scientists tested blood from 101 patients and found two-thirds carried it.
That doesn't mean the virus causes chronic fatigue, stressed the research, which was published recently in the journal, Science.
The team of scientists said it was possible the virus, named XMRV, was just "a passenger virus" that catches a ride in patients whose immune systems are weakened by chronic fatigue.
Moreover, the researchers found nearly 4 percent of healthy people carried the virus, too. That raises bigger questions about just what role this recently discovered virus -- a relative of viruses that cause cancer in mice -- may be playing in overall health.
"This suggests that several million Americans may be infected with a retrovirus of as-yet-unknown pathogenic potential," the researchers concluded.
A retrovirus is a kind of virus that permanently embeds in the body.
Various viruses have been linked to chronic fatigue over the years, only to fall by the wayside as potential culprits in the mysterious illness thought to afflict about 1 million Americans.
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