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Published online 8 October 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2009.983
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Virus linked to chronic fatigue syndrome
Prostate cancer pathogen may be behind the disease once dubbed 'yuppie flu'.
A study on chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) has linked the mysterious and controversial disease to a recently discovered retrovirus. Just last month researchers found the same virus to be associated with aggressive prostate tumours.
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The nature of this seriously disabling disease has been taking so long to establish because of the paucity of serious biomedical research into the condition and the failure of government to support such research. As a scientist who has suffered from it for over 25 years following a viral infection I have watched, appalled, as scientific politics have deflected funding away from biomedical studies towards psychosocial ones. This is nothing short of a scientific scandal.
I strongly urge those with ME/CFS and those who care about them to donate to those research charities that fund only biomedical research into the condition. There are over 250,000 people in the UK with this diagnosis and the national average donation to charity of £10 a month would yield an annual research budget of £30 million! It's currently £0.4 million. If we want to get better we must support the research that will help.
In the UK the charities that fund biomedical research include ME Research UK and the ME Association's Ramsay Research Fund; both are currently being supported by a moneysaving-to-donate campaign called "Just Four Quid", which recognises that people with ME/CFS are likely to be on restricted incomes. Just google and you'll find the charities and the campaign site.
Please donate! There's no science without funding!
I'm so happy someone is looking for new treatment options. Is there a way to get updates on this research?