The researchers examined 165 patients with chronic fatigue syndrome - also known as M.E. (myalgic encephalitis) - and long-standing gut complaints.
More than 80% of samples were infected with an enterovirus, compared with just seven of 34 samples taken from healthy volunteers.
The study is published in the Journal of Clinical Pathology.
| The findings raise the question of whether antiviral drug therapy would be beneficial Dr Charles Shepherd M.E. Association |
The finding may help explain why many patients with M.E. often have intermittent or persistent gut problems, including indigestion and irritable bowel syndrome.
Viral infections, such as Epstein Barr virus (glandular fever), cytomegalovirus, and parvovirus, are also known to produce many of the symptoms associated M.E.
Enteroviruses, which infect the bowel, cause severe but short lasting respiratory and gut infections.
There are more than 70 different types, and they head for the central nervous system, heart and muscles.
The researchers found that in a significant proportion of patients the initial enteroviral infection had occurred many years earlier.
Drug possibility
They said: "Although finding a chronic infection of the stomach may not directly prove a similar infection in the brain, muscle or heart, it opens up a new direction in the research for this elusive disease."
Dr Charles Shepherd, medical adviser to the M.E. Association, said the study would re-open the debate into whether persistent viral infection plays a role in the condition.
He said: "We know from previous research that enteroviruses, the group of viruses being investigated in this study, can trigger ME/CFS in some people.
"There is also some evidence that enteroviral infection can then persist in various parts of the body including muscle and brain - a finding that could help to explain why muscle and brain symptoms are so characteristic of the illness.
"The new clearly adds weight to this theory. The findings also raise the question of whether antiviral drug therapy would be beneficial in this particular sub-group of ME/CFS patients."
10 comments:
Hmmmmmm that is interesting Lisa, thanks for sharing, Hugs Lisa
good news sounds lke they are moving palces
Thats interesting ,thanks for sharing ...love Jan xx
HMMM they are always finding new ways to help people. Science is awesome.
Kelli
http;//journals.aol.com/kamdghwmw/noonmom
ME is a very difficult syndrome to diagnose, and I hope that this leads to a way to prevent it.
((((((((((((((((LISA())))))))))))))))You always find info to share with us.Thank you.
i've had a stomach virus from mcdonalds before i was younger my mother was going to sue but never did after that sometimes i get bad stomach pains and when i ball into a fetal position after a while it goes away.
I have read what you posted and I am praying for you, God answers prayers we must trust and believe in Him I am glad to meet you and I hope to talk to you again this is the first for me on here so I dont know if I am doing this right. Well God Bless for now
Interesting. I hope that this opens up more good avenues for treatment for sufferers.
I feel that a lot of this applies to my case as during my worst illness at 53 mono was found in my body, not to a high degree the doctor said which led me to believe it had been far more devastating in a previous illness that affected all myglands and seemed to move from one to another, accompanied by painful inflammation and weakness and loss of stregnth. I thought I would never get better from that, but my doctor did not think to test me for signs of mono in the previous bout with it, or what I felt was a relapse. I thought it stayed in my body in dormant form and flared up when I was overtired and over stressed on the job. I met other people who were terrified of a reoccurrence of their mono symptoms. Yet, doctors were saying at the time that once you had mono you were immune to it from then on. Not some people, but AIDs and other more devastating diseases had to be researched just to save people who were dying, so I am sure research into these relatively more rare developments were shelved. I appreciate the research you have done. Gerry
Post a Comment