XMRV and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Is there a link?

Several months ago a paper in Science linked Chronic Fatigue Syndrome to the xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV). Now a new study in Retrovirology by investigators at CDC refutes the Science paper. In the new study blood samples from 51 patients who met the CDC diagnostic criteria for CFS and 56 healthy control patients were tested via western blot, ELISA, and 2 different PCR assays for XMRV. None of the patients in either group were found to be positive by any of the methods. However, according to the Wall Street Journal there's yet another paper from investigators at the FDA and NIH, as of yet unpublished, that claims a link between XMRV and CFS. I don't know what to think except that this virus needs a new name--virus-related virus sounds dumb to me.

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