Comment on: Antibody to Coxsackie B virus in diagnosing postviral fatigue syndrome. [BMJ. 1991]
SIR,-Dr N A Miller and colleagues highlight the difficulty of associating a virus (coxsackie B virus) with a disease (postviral fatigue syndrome) when the virus in question is common in the general population.’ In a recent serological survey of the family members of children with insulin dependent diabetes mellitus we also found a high prevalence of IgM antibody specific to enterovirus: 14% of children with recently diagnosed insulin dependent diabetes mellitus, 8% of unaffected siblings, and 18% of parents had the antibody at the time of entry into the study. Serum samples were collected between 1985 and 1987. These seroprevalence figures are higher than those reported among control populations in earlier studies in the United Kingdom-5 5% in children during 19822 and 3-5% in adults during 1979-80.3 Because the assay used in these studies was the same as that used by Dr Miller and colleagues this indicates that enterovirus was endemic during 1985-7, which covers the period of the study of Dr Miller and colleagues.
You can read the rest of this comment here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1675464/pdf/bmj00117-0062c.pdf
Source: Muir P, Nicholson F, Banatvala JE, Bingley PJ. Coxsackie B virus and postviral fatigue syndrome. BMJ. 1991 Mar 16;302(6777):658-9. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1675464/