Fw: Press release: XMRV virus found in Dutch patients

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From: ESME European Society for ME <post@...>Subject: Press release: XMRV virus found in Dutch patients"ESME European society of ME" <post@...>Date: Saturday, April 17, 2010, 12:09 AM

ESME IVWZ

KBO: 0817.905.582

This press release was issued yesterday 2010/16/04 in The Netherlands bij dutch jounalist Toine de Graaf. Here is an English translation.XMRV virus found in Dutch patientsGendringen, 2010/04/16 - Researchers at UMC St. Radboud announced in February no XMRV virus has been found in the blood of Dutch chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) patients. They concealed, however, that U.S. reseachers did found traces of this retrovirus in blood samples of the same patient. This is shown in a web publication of Ortho magazine, which is put online today.For years medical researchers have been searching for the biological cause of CFS, but always without success. Last October Americans announced a breakthrough: researchers from the Whittemore Institute (WPI) in Reno found the retrovirus XMRV in many patients with ME/CFS. The study

was published in the leading scientific journal Science, after a Research period of 2.5 years.Researchers at UMC St. Radboud had doubts and decided to repeat the Science research, with frozen blood samples from Dutch patients from 1991-1992. The study took place very rapidly under the leadership of Nijmegen experimental virologist Dr. Kuppeveld and internist Professor Dr. Jos van der Meer. But they found nothing. "Neither in the blood of 32 patients, nor in that of the 43 controls, the retrovirus was found ", the UMC St. Radboud was quoted in a press release issued at the end of last February.Now it is obvious certain things are concealed. This week a letter has been made public by Annette Whittemore, who directs the WPI. In this letter she describes that the WPI, at the request of Van Kuppeveld, has tested some blood samples from the Dutch cohort study prior to the completion of the Nijmegen study. The WPI found traces

of XMRV in these samples. Whittemore says she possesses email correspondence that shows Van Kuppeveld was aware of the WPI research results before the Dutch study was published in the British Medical Journal.The web publication of Ortho provides a reconstruction of events based on an interview with Dr. Judy Mikovits, Research Director of the WPI. The web publication coincides with the appearance ofthe April issue of Ortho, were further attention is spent on XMRV.Further information (in Dutch):http://www.ortho.nl/bestanden/artikelen/ortho102laatstenieuwsxmrvb.pdf

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ESME Team

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