XMRV

[Chase14]

This is a question that I asked Dr Hook  and his response is below

Why does it seem that nobody is too familiar with XMRV in the infectious disease/ STD field? I have seen where people who have experienced what they thought were ARS symptoms and tested numerous times for all STD's including HIV multiple times and obviously testing negative. It seems the response you see most is that there symptoms are psychological and that they need to move on but never once have I seen someone suggest testing for XMRV? If it is even a possibility of being a STD shouldn't there be more readily available testing for this and just general knowledge especially in this field.  If these people decide to move on after being told many times no more testing is necessary do in fact have XMRV risk passing it on to loved ones without their knowledge. I've asked at clinics and nobody seems to have even heard of this virus.  I just don't understand why this isn't a more addressesd issue. 

XMRV is a virus which has been isolated from persons with prostate cancer.  Some scientists suspect that the virus is not real while others believe that it is real but are unsure of its role in human health and diseases  There are suggestions that the virus may be related to chronic fatigue syndrome and careful scientific studies are underway to determine the presence of this virus in persons with a number of diseases and disease states. So far however, there are no firm data to suggest an association of this virus with any human disease other than chronic fatigue syndrome.  Studies of how the virus might be transmitted are likewise underway but, at this point, there are no data to suggest that sexual transmission is an important mode of transmission.  further, there are no non-research tests available for XMRV.  Scientist must prioritize how and what they study and at this point in time, the prioritization of XMRV is modest.  As a result, and since our assessments and suggestions are based on proven, high quality scientific data, we are not in a position to comment on what his virus might or might not be doing.  Not much more to say.  To amplify or encourage concerns about unproven pathogens is not something either of us is willing to do.   I hope the perspective is helpful to you. 

As it happens, I am currently at a national Infectious Disease meeting and had the chance a few minutes ago to ask one of the nation's most eminent virologists who informed my that well conducted studies seeking to evaluate the link between XMRV and chronic fatigue syndrome did NOT show ANY associations.  With these studies, concerns about XMRV as a human pathogen have diminished as has research.

To my knowledge there are no commercially available tests for XMRV and there are NO data to suggest that this virus is sexually transmitted.

I will have nothing more to say about this topic.  EWH

Doe anyone else have any insight?