News Release
Fatigue Syndrome Researchers to Speak on Campus
(October 15, 2009) -
Two of the researchers who recently announced that a retrovirus may be linked to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome will be on campus Oct. 26 to discuss their findings. The event will have limited seating and is open to the first 50 people who reserve a space.
Vincent Lombardi, Ph.D., the lead author of the research and Judy Mikovitz, Ph.D., Research Director at the Whittemore Peterson Institute in Reno, will appear on campus to discuss their paper and take questions from faculty and students.
The researchers chose Pacific as the first place where they would publicly discuss their paper because Pacific is home to the Pacific Fatigue Laboratory in the Sports Sciences Department. Executive Director Staci Stevens, MA, is a frequent collaborator with the Whittemore Peterson Institute.
"This is a significant breakthrough in research into Chronic Fatigue Syndrome because up until now, despite growing scientific evidence, there has been a strong belief by many physicians and researchers that the disorder was psychological," Stevens said. "Later in the week, I am flying to Washington D.C. to provide testimony to the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Advisory Committee along with faculty member Michelle Mielke, Ph.D. and Harnoor Singh, a graduate student who works in the lab."
Daniel Peterson, MD, the Institute's Medical Director, will be presenting his group's findings to the committee to discuss the impact that this paper could have on the treatment and classification of CFS., Stevens said Christopher Snell, Ph.D. and Chair of the Sport Sciences Department is a member of the advisory committee, whose mission is to advise the Secretary of Health on matters related to CFS.
Mikovits and Lombardi's paper appeared in the Oct. 8 issue of "Science" magazine-, The authors found traces of xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus, or XMRV, in the vast majority of patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. XMRV has previously been linked to prostate cancer and is a distant relative to the virus that can cause AIDS.
Since its initial publication, it has been reviewed in articles in the New York Times and on the Reuters News Service, on National Public Radio and on the CBS Evening News.
The finding is significant because it's estimated that one million people in the United States has Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Symptoms of the Syndrome include extreme fatigue, muscle and joint pain, sleep problems, difficulty concentrating and other symptoms. The symptoms can last for years and there has been no treatment discovered. More about the illness can be found online athttp://www.wpinstitute.org or lhttp://www.cancer.gov/newscenter/pressreleases/CFSxmrv.
The event will be limited to the first 50 people who RSVP to rwolf@pacific.edu. The discussion will start at 2:30 p.m. Oct. 26 in the President's Room on the Stockton Campus of University of the Pacific.
