Question and Answer Forum

Do You Think HHV-6 Plays A Role in CFS?

By David S. Bell, MD, FAAP

Published in Lyndonville News, July 2000

Question:

Dear Dr. Bell,

I have been following the connection between HHV-6 and CFS? Have you read the book, The Virus Within? What role do you think HHV-6 plays in CFS if any? Do you think patients should be tested for this virus?

Thanks,
A Reader

Answer:

Dear Reader,

The question of HHV-6 and its variants is one that I am not able to answer. Like many leads in this illness, I find it fascinating, and I hope that it is going to lead to the answer, but it is not an area that I have the technical expertise to make a strong opinion.

I first got interested in HHV-6 in 1987 or so when Dharam Ablashi and I did a study on adolescents and controls in Lyndonville. In this study there was no great difference between patient and controls. The study did not get published, like many dead end, negative studies. The problem, of course, is whether we were looking at the right HHV-6, the study of which has evolved considerably since then. I have read the books on the market concerning this virus, and I agree that it is probably one of the real nasty ones out there. I wish I had been trained as a biochemist or microbiologist or retrovirologist so I could really get to work and study some of this stuff. Unfortunately, the good old days of trying to grow these bugs in a home lab in the basement are probably over, so I will have to wait with the rest of you and hope that good studies will reveal the answer.

Thanks for writing,

Dr. Bell

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