by Mary Schweitzwer, Ph.D.

Once again people are confusing the retrovirus XMRC with CFS – and forgetting all about XAND (or XMRV Associated Neuroimmune Disease), We have to keep them clear as we talk to outsiders, if we are ever going to escape over 20 years of a pathetic and useless name and concept, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

** XMRV is not CFS ** XMRV is not CFS – it can’t be CFS. It can’t be CFS because CFS means too many different things in the realms of medicine, research, and popular culture.

Example: According to British psychiatrist Peter White, CFS is a condition of UNEXPLAINED SYMPTOMS that results from “inappropriate illness beliefs.” It is best treated with Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) and Graded Exercise Therapy (GET). And this is pretty much the version of CFS that has been adopted by Britains National Health Services – and the “NICE” Guidelines.

XMRV isn’t a symptom. Perhaps the symptoms of XMRV are identical to White’s version of CFS, but then they wouldn’t be medically unexplained any more.

So, by definition, XMRV cannot just be “CFS” – because there are definitions of CFS that preclude the possibility of being caused by a virus. Any time you hear someone like White, or Simon Wessely, or Trudy Chalder, express an opinion about the “validity” of XMRV with regard to “CFS”, they cannot possibly have anything professional to say about it.

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