Treatment of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome with Valcyte
When chronic fatigue syndrome was called Epstein-Barr, it was believed to be caused by the epstein barr virus which is in the herpes virus family, and causes mononucleosis. Researchers have moved on to other theories since then, but a recent study may cause them to think otherwise. This year a study treated CFS patients with the anti-viral drug Valcyte. A doctor named Jose Montoya, that was treating chronic fatigue patients out of Stanford University,noticed that one of his patients had high levels of circulating antibodies to 3 different herpes viruses. Early in 2007 he completed a study of 25 of his most severe CFS patients. He reported that there was significant improvement in 21 of the 25 patients. 20 of the 21 patients that had a flu-like illness onset had the most significant improvements.
Many of the patients that were treated had been sick for over a decade, and were severely disabled. Some of them have actually resumed work and excersice. Dr. Montoya believes that this treatment may help a certain subset of CFS patients, but a significant portion of the population may make up this subset. Viral infection has often been a suspect in CFS patients, but if this new study comes out with a positive result it might be a breathrough.
Currently Dr. Montoya is conducting a study with 100 chronic fatigue syndrome patients. He has a website that discusses his clinical trial here. I believe that the trial has already begun but there may be updates there in the future. Dr. Montoya recieved a 1.3 million dollar grant from Roche Pharmaceuticals to conduct his research and if this 2nd, larger clinical trial has similar results as the first, then there may be a new effective treatment for CFS.