Health Canada recently announced that people with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) will no longer be allowed to donate blood. This is related to concerns about xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus, which was found in one study in Nevada to be present more commonly in a group of CFS patients than in a control group without CFS.

I am not very interested in XMRV. For one thing, two other studies found no increased incidence of XMRV in CFS patients. For another, this is just the latest in a series of viruses that have been associated with CFS. Almost a dozen viruses have been implicated over the years.

The reason that viruses seem to be repeatedly associated with this disorder is that it causes - or is caused by - a disturbed immune system. This makes people more prone to chronic infection or more prone to being affected by viral infections.

I don't want to belabour this point here, because there is a detailed summary of our thoughts on CFS in the spring issue of our newsletter. But I think Health Canada has it wrong.

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