Valganciclovir may be the drug for chronic fatigue syndrome

A drug used to treat herpes has produced dramatic results in people with chronic fatigue syndrome, reported the Daily Mail (16 May 2006).

The newspaper report appears to be based on a conference presentation. It is not possible to evaluate the findings as insufficient details relating to the study have been found.

The Daily Mail (16 May 2006) reported that valganciclovir, a drug which targets the human herpes virus (HHV-6), has produced a dramatic improvement in patients severely affected by chronic fatigue syndrome/ myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) (1).

The newspaper report appears to be based on a conference presentation given by Professor Jose Montoya of Stanford University in California, at the 5th International Conference on HHV-6 & 7 in Barcelona (2). The newspaper reported that in the study, 12 people had been given valganciclovir, nine of whom had experienced a 'great improvement'.

It is not possible to comment on the quality of the research or the reliability of the findings as insufficient details relating to the study have been found.

Information staff at CRD searched for systematic reviews relevant to this topic. Systematic reviews are valuable sources of evidence as they locate, appraise and synthesize all available evidence on a particular topic.

There were no related systematic reviews identified on the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR) or on the Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE).

References and resources
1. Is this the cure for ME? Daily Mail, 16 May 2005, p48.

2. Montoya J. Use of Valganciclovir in patients chronically co-infected with Human Herpes Virus 6 (HHV-6) and Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) who were experiencing long-standing fatigue. In: 5th International Conference on HHV-6 & 7; 2006 April 30 - May 3; Barcelona, Spain.

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Publisher: Centre for Reviews and Dissemination

Crown Copyright 2006