News

Success Stories Wanted from Members.

Please submit your success stories or ways that the Brockville M.E. Assoc. has helped you in the past or is currently helping you.
This may include information received from Guest Speakers; information received from other members; the library or the booths on May 12th.
Deadline is October 28th. You can send them in by e mail, regular mail or bring them to the meeting on October 27th., send them to the attention of the President Mary Fairbairn.  We need a story to submit to the United Way by early November.  The others will be used in our 20th. year celebration in 2012.

Thank you, you are helping others by sharing your experiences.

Research

 

ME - Blood Donor Warning

Canada - "As of the end of April, 2010, Canadian Blood Services will be deferring donors with a medical history of chronic fatigue syndrome."

*** In other words the Canadian Blood Services will not accept ME/CFS suffers as blood donors!

1. - Indefinite Deferrals

2.- Canadian Blood Services Responds to Possible New Blood Safety Threat

Australia - Red Cross Blood Bank is now apparently not accepting blood donations from ME/CFS sufferers.

UK -Comments by Mrs. Ann Keen the Under-Secretary of State for Health

"People with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), are not able to donate blood until they have fully recovered.

The reasons for this are: first blood donors need to be in good health, and people with ME/CFS often experience a range of symptoms which could be made worse by donating blood; and second, as the cause of ME/CFS are not currently fully understood, people with the condition are deferred from donating blood as a precautionary measure ri protect the safety of the blood supply for patients"

Newsletters

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ME/CFS Centre

In The News

The Globe and Mail of Friday Oct. 9, 2009 presents an article entitled Virus found in Cancer linked to
chronic fatigue written by David Morgan.
It has been reported that a virus linked to prostate cancer and known as XMRV, was found in the blood
of 68 out of 101 chronic fatigue syndrome patients as compared with only 8 of 218 healthy people.
“Judy Mikovits of the Whittemore Pearson Institute in Nevada and colleagues at the U.S. National Cancer Insti-
tute and the Cleveland Clinic emphasized that the finding only shows a link between the virus and chronic fatigue
syndrome, or CFS, and does not prove that the pathogen causes the disorder.
Much more study would be necessary to show a direct link, but Dr. Mikovits said the study offers hope that CFS
sufferers might gain relief from a cocktail of drugs designed to fight AIDS, cancer and inflammation.”
XMRV or xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus is a retrovirus , like the HIV virus that causes
AIDS. XMRV has also been found in some prostate tumours and is also known to cause leukemia and tumours
in animals.
“Dr. Mikovits’ team said further research must now determine whether XMRV directly causes CFS, is
just a passenger virus in the suppressed immune systems of sufferers or a pathogen that acts in concert with other
viruses that have been implicated in the disorder by previous research.”
Not only does this article link CFS to a number of extremely serious and debilitating illnesses but it pro-
vides an accurate list of symptoms as provided by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. What it means for us, is one more very compelling reason for taking our illness seriously.