Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Treatment - Better Antivirals Coming?

A lot of experts on chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS or ME/CFS) believe that humanherpes virus 6 (HHV-6) is the culprit in many cases of the condition. So shouldn't people with ME/CFS just get treated for HHV-6 and see what happens?

It's not that simple. The problem is that antiviral drugs strong enough to kill HHV-6 are also rather toxic to people.

But at the June 2008 Symposium on Viruses in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Dr. M.N. Prichard talked about upcoming antivirals that are expected to be more effective and less toxic.

Keep your eyes open for developments involving these drugs:

• Artesunate (already approved in Europe for malaria)
• Arysulfone derivatives
• Cycloprovir
• CMX001
• CMV423
• HPMP-5-azal
• Marabavir (MBV)

Of course, these drugs are years away from being in regular use (sometimes research time seems on par with geological time), but at least with 7 promising drugs in the pipeline, odd are good that better treatment is coming. Someday.

Suggested Reading:

• Drug Treatments for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Symptoms - The Monster List!
• Chronic Fatigue vs. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome