ME/CFS and the Red Cross

From a Red Cross press release:

At present, there are no specific federal recommendations regarding deferral of individuals with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) or other diseases that have been associated with Murine Leukemia Virus-related virus (XMRV) infection. Nevertheless, in the interest of patient and donor safety, the American Red Cross will defer indefinitely any donor who reveals during the donor interview that they have been diagnosed with CFS.

'bout time. Of course, people who know they have ME/CFS probably haven't been giving blood in droves. Even if they weren't worried about transmitting the disease, blood donation isn't going to be much of a priority for those who feel like crap all the time.

The big concern is the healthy 4–7 percent of the population infected with XMRV or other MLVs. The vast majority of them don't know they're infected, and the Red Cross isn't yet testing for MLVs the way they do for HIV.

That's the next step.

ME/CFS and the blood supply

With evidence of a link between ME/CFS and a family of retroviruses, there's been talk of potential contamination to the blood supply. 7 percent of the healthy controls in the recent Alter study tested positive for an MLV (murine leukemia virus). All of them were blood donors.

Remember why this kind of thing is a big deal?

Anyway, Canada, New Zealand, and the UK have already banned ME/CFS patients from donating blood (though the UK is saying it's to protect the health of the donors). The United States hasn't followed suit, at least not yet. From the Associated Press:

No one knows how people become infected, but Alter said a major study is under way to see if there's any evidence of transmission through blood.

In the meantime, federal regulations require that blood donors be in good health, said FDA's Dr. Hira Nakhasi.

So apparently we aren't worried about those healthy donors who have MLVs yet.