Government Confirms Testing of Children with Autism for Presence of XMRV Retrovirus
By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.
I received the following e-mail a few weeks back from the National Institute of Health concerning my inquiry into XMRV (xenotropic murine leukemia virus related virus) infection and children with autism. Here is the reply:
Dear Mr. Heckenlively:
Thank you for writing to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) concerning the presence of the XMRV retrovirus in children with autism. As the Acting Director, Office of Science Policy, Planning, and Communications, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), I have been asked to respond on behalf of Dr. Francis Collins, NIH Director.
NIH is dedicated to addressing the growing public health challenge that autism spectrum disorders (ASD) present. In FY 2010, NIH invested $160 million from its annual appropriation in research on autism and another $58 million in funding provided through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. In addition, NIH issued several funding opportunity announcements to encourage research designed to elucidate the etiology, epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment, and optimal means of service delivery related to ASD.
As you may be aware, NIH intramural researchers are examining the XMRV retrovirus in samples from approximately 100 children in an autism subtyping study: Neuroimmunologic Investigations of Autism Spectrum Disorders. You can access further information on the study via the NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools at http://projectreporter.nih.gov/reporter.cfm. Since final analyses of the study are not complete and have not been published, we do not yet have any results to provide. The researchers will share the results in the future after completion of the data analysis.
Thank you again for your interest in research on autism.
Marina Volkov, Ph.D. Acting Director NIMH Office of Science Policy, Planning, and Communications
I responded on June 2, 2011, asking three questions, based on a series of e-mails provided to me by another autism parent who had made a similar inquiry.
1. What was the testing initially used by the NIH which showed a high rate of XMRV infection in children with autism?
2. What were the subsequent tests used by the CDC which did not show a high rate of XMRV infection in children with autism?
3. Is the NIH following the established protocols for blood storage, preparation of the sample, and tests utilized, as detailed by the initial study group of the Whittemore-Peterson Institute, the Cleveland Clinic, and the National Cancer Institute as detailed in their October 2009 article in the journal Science?
When I receive an answer to these questions I will share them with the readers of Age of Autism.
Kent Heckenlively is Contributing Editor to Age of Autism
Hi Kent Heckenlively.
Is it possible to test for this in our children using initially the CRP test (C-Reactive Protein or the HS- CRP).... ?
Regards and thanks /
Allan Bjerre, Denmark
Posted by: Allan Bjerre | January 20, 2012 at 08:04 AM
There is another facebook vote that started yesterday to win funding for Whittemore Peterson Institute who are the good guys working on XMRV and autism,
we vote everyday until Aug 27th.
log into facebook
go to http://www.facebook.com/VivintHome and "Like"
then go to voting page here
http://www.vivint.com/givesbackproject/charity/769
login and allow permission, and then scroll down, the orange vote button is at the bottom
vote everyday. The WPI will win $250,000 if they come first overall, and $100,000 if they come first in their region.
Right now they are 164 votes away from the top overall, and they are first in their region. We need to keep them at the top of their region, and try to get them to the top overall, so vote for WPI everyday, and please pass this on.
If you want a daily reminder to vote, visit https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=121179681298558
Posted by: A | June 15, 2011 at 09:27 AM
UK and US Damaged Their Own Troops ;
I read that book, but it was sequalene that made the immune system react.
What did they say - it was like olive oil that you can eat but if you put it in a needle and inject it in the body it set up an immune reaction.
Mycoplasma is mentioned in the book 27 times (blush, my duaghter gave me a kindle for Christmas)
I wondered about this all during the book.
The armed forces already gave a contaminated vaccine to the troops in WWII and were determined that would never happen again. TO keep this from happening, they actually put thier antigens together protein, by protein - building their own to keep it from getting contaminated. What they made was so weak that the body would not build immunity to it, so they added a milder type of sequalene. The orginal sequalene was so bad, would heat up the immune system so bad that it was consider inhumane to use it on animals.
So, it does not have to be heavy metals that can mess up the immune system, there is also other things esp oils.
Posted by: Benedetta | June 09, 2011 at 06:05 PM
@aidan walsh, at the risk of feeding the trolls: Read Gary Matsumoto's book "Vaccine A" and then get back to us on the cause of Gulf War Illness.
Posted by: UK and US Damaged Their Own Troops | June 09, 2011 at 02:41 PM
Kent;
Through this whole mess there are only one thing that I know, but I don't know why/what.
Something is interferring with the Krebs energy cycle.
But what?
Is it our own messed up immune system?
Is it a heavy metals, and even flouride is causing more uptake of heavy metals esp aluminium?
Is it a virus?
Our own immune sytem acts like it is fighting something, perhaps it really does know.
Posted by: Benedetta | June 08, 2011 at 06:11 PM
Dennis Lendrum
You mentioned asbestos. It may not be all or the only cause of mesthiolioma!!!!
I read a book this fall about the history of the polio vaccine.
They grew polio up on monkey kidneys. In the polio vaccine they got a virus, a very deadly virus. It caused mesothelioma among other kinds of deadly cancers. Yes, it ended up being given to children.
You should read it, I don't have time to look it up, but it was one of the most interesting reads! You get inside the mentality of the people working at the NIH, and it explains clearly how the polio virus was made. the main thing on all of these vaccines was making a media on which the viruses would grow. Very unsafe medias.
Posted by: Benedetta | June 08, 2011 at 08:39 AM
When somebody or a big company has the big dollars to fund a test, they will get the results they want or they will just get somebody else to do another test, until the results are what they want. Look at the asbestos crap that happened many years ago, now look at what we know about asbestos. Many died a horrible death because of asbestos but many others got very big bank accounts because of asbestos. I have a 7 year old grandson that will have to live his life with autism, because somebody covered something up for the almighty dollar
Posted by: Dennis Lendrum | June 08, 2011 at 12:48 AM
Is the CDC the "enforcer", the "heavy" for the NIH? Is that why they are so far removed from D.C.? So they can be "removed" in the general consciousness? I, for one, think they should be shut down, and all work on pathogens of any kind be transferred to the NIH.
Thank you, Kent, for pushing the envelope, for holding the governmental agencies and officials accountable. Think there are going to be a lot of scapegoats over XMRV.
Posted by: Kathryn Stephens | June 08, 2011 at 12:28 AM
i also wanted to say that the work at vanderbilt university by dr. stratton's team on c. pneumonaie must also with the nicolson's work on mycoplasma(s)be taken very serious and not forgetting dr. lerner's work on herpes viruses and cardiac heart functions with also enterovirus theories and the neurology findings with chiari malformation and/or stenosis of the spine...is it possible that in the end of all this is these disorders are (C.U.D.) 'CHRONIC UNINTENTIONAL DEHYDRATION'...REMEMBER EVERYONE XMRV IS 'NOT' THE ONLY PLAUSIBLE CAUSE....SINCERELY AIDAN WALSH SOUTHAMPTON, U.K.
Posted by: aidan walsh | June 07, 2011 at 08:37 PM
there are other avenues of 'SERIOUS RESEARCH'that are now not being seriously taken because of XMRV HYPE...if xmrv was a cause it would have already be proven by now besides wpi has never eveer published anything else since their SCIENCE PAPER...i find that very odd...also john berns shool of medicies marine biologists are brighter than wpi, there work on ciguatera (epitope) toxin is published under 'REPLICATED' science...it is already clear with this group it is science already proven and it is in 'black and white' with now a plausible link to radiation poison...it will take marine and radiation experts to figure out cfs and gulf war illness and autism not retrovirologists...this is where dollars should be put...there could be a very good plausible reason why researchers do not follow the wpi protocol because it is flawed...the last thing anyone wants is to replicate something and 10 years more down the road we all find out it is a lab mistake...i think what everyone should be most exited with is treatments that made people well because then none of us would then give a damn what was the cause because if something worked and made people well we all would not be back and forth like a game of tennis now would we...that is why i will follow www.watercure.com and www.watercure2.org and keep myself posted closely to GcMAUF...REMEMBER FOR DECADES SCIENTISTS HAVE ARGUDE BACK AND FORTH ON HIV CAUSE OF AIDS AND TO THIS DATE THERE IS NO PROOF HIV IS THE SOLE CAUSE OF AIDS AND THAT IS A FACT...HIV ALSO COULD BE HYPE....SINCERELY, AIDAN WALSH SOUTHAMPTON U.K.
Posted by: aidan walsh | June 07, 2011 at 08:24 PM
I spoke with my Mom this weekend. She taught exclusively emotionally and learning disabled children for 35 years in NYC public schools. I asked her about autism and she said it did not exist in her classroom in her earlier years and now it's everywhere. Her learning disabled children until later years were all overeager to please her as an authority figure, and did not exhibit emotional disconnection like autistic kids. The more I learn about autism, the more I see how 'they' just lie about it so blatantly like they do about ME.
Posted by: Justin Reilly, esq. | June 07, 2011 at 05:58 PM
Thanks for keeping on top of HGRVs, Kent. Some powerful people obviously want scientific inquiry into HGRVs/XMRV to end prematurely. Can't let that happen!
Posted by: Justin Reilly, esq. | June 07, 2011 at 05:53 PM
160 million! I am sickened that the only results from this money so far is that autism is near 1% of the population. Am I missing something? What else has come from this spending?
Posted by: Heidi N | June 07, 2011 at 05:29 PM
Thank you Kent for pursuing this. Since I have two relatives with ME/CFS and two sons with autism, I am sure there is XMRV in our bloodline. I also lost two relatives to MS several years ago.
Posted by: Jillba | June 07, 2011 at 03:45 PM
Fixed the NIH/CDC confusion.
Keith, of course the government will try to bury information it doesn't like. That's where all of us come in. I'm putting this out there as a marker.
Posted by: Kent Heckenlively | June 07, 2011 at 09:11 AM
Is there any doubt that the government will just discard the positive results and keep testing till they find a way to make the results negative. They will then do a cover up job and publisize the negative findings like they always do.
Posted by: Keith | June 07, 2011 at 09:05 AM
The initial testing that found large numbers of ASD children positive for XMRV was not done by CDC. It was done by NIH.
The subsequent 'retesting' of samples was said to be carried out by the CDC. The previous NIH positives were thus declared 'false positives'.
Posted by: XMRV is in the blood supply | June 07, 2011 at 07:06 AM