Stomach Bug Linked to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Rinderpest's eradication 'biggest achievement in veterinary history'

(NEWSER) - Scientists say they have eradicated the deadly cattle virus rinderpest, marking only the second time in history that humanity has wiped out a viral disease. Smallpox was wiped out 30 years ago. Rinderpest—which originated in Asia and spread around the world with invaders from Genghis Khan onward—was capable of quickly killing off cattle herds and had caused famines and economic devastation for thousands of years. The Guardian notes that the disease killed between 80% and 90% of Africa's cattle and buffalo after arriving on the continent in the late 1800s. More»

Feds unsure whether XMRV actually poses a threat, but probe ongoing

(NEWSER) - Public health officials are calmly but vigilantly pursuing a possible new threat to the nation’s blood supply linked to prostate cancer and chronic fatigue syndrome. The virus, dubbed XMRV for the awful-sounding xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus, may be present in the blood of 4% of Americans, and was shown to be present in more than half of CFS sufferers in a study. But whether it is actually malignant or benign, no one knows. More»

Obscure virus found in two-thirds of sufferers

(NEWSER) - A research team believes it has finally uncovered the cause of chronic fatigue syndrome. The mysterious syndrome—labeled "yuppie flu" in the '80s and considered by some doctors to be a purely psychiatric problem—appears to be caused by an obscure retrovirus, the scientists say. Some 67% of sufferers carried the virus, and 95% had antibodies for it, their research found, compared to just 4% in a control group. More»

Disease continues to evolve

(NEWSER) - A woman from Cameroon living in Paris is the first human discovered to be infected with a form of HIV found in gorillas, HealthDay reports. The finding is yet another indication that the disease continues to mutate and to be transmitted by primates. The woman, 62, has not developed symptoms of AIDS, even though she was infected five years ago. More»

(NEWSER) - The World Health Organization today instructed member nations to stop counting cases of the rapidly spreading swine flu pandemic and focus instead on the most serious, Reuters reports. “Trying to register and report every single case is a huge waste of resources,” a spokesman said. Authorities should continue to report clusters of infections, unusual cases, and “a more severe disease pattern.” More»