Keshavarz, Mohsen, Karbalaie Niya, Mohammad Hadi, Tameshkel, Fahimeh Safarnezhad et al. · Journal of pharmacy & bioallied sciences · 2018 · DOI
Researchers in Iran tested 291 patients suspected of having HTLV-1 (a virus that affects the immune system) to see if they also had XMRV, another virus that has been studied in connection with chronic fatigue syndrome. They found that 32% of patients had HTLV-1, but only 1 out of 93 HTLV-1-positive patients also had XMRV. This suggests that having both viruses together is very rare in this population.
Since XMRV has been proposed as a potential pathogen in ME/CFS and might interact with other infections, understanding its prevalence and coinfection patterns is important for clarifying disease etiology. This study provides epidemiological data on XMRV detection rates in a specific population and infection context, contributing to the global understanding of XMRV distribution and its relationship to other viral infections.
This study does not prove that XMRV and HTLV-1 cannot coexist or that XMRV plays no role in ME/CFS pathogenesis. The very low detection rate in this Iranian cohort does not rule out XMRV's presence or importance in other populations, geographic regions, or patient subgroups. Cross-sectional design cannot establish causality or determine whether rare coinfections have clinical significance.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Keshavarz, Mohsen, Karbalaie Niya, Mohammad Hadi, Tameshkel, Fahimeh Safarnezhad, Mozaffari Nejad, Amir Sasan, Monavari, Seyed Hamidreza, & Keyvani, Hossein (2018). A Survey on Human T-cell Lymphotropic Virus Type 1 (HTLV-1) and Xenotropic Murine Leukemia Virus-Related Virus (XMRV) Coinfection in Tehran, Iran.. Journal of pharmacy & bioallied sciences. https://doi.org/10.4103/jpbs.JPBS_25_18
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-keshavarz-2018-survey-human,
author = {Keshavarz, Mohsen and Karbalaie Niya, Mohammad Hadi and Tameshkel, Fahimeh Safarnezhad and Mozaffari Nejad, Amir Sasan and Monavari, Seyed Hamidreza and Keyvani, Hossein},
title = {A Survey on Human T-cell Lymphotropic Virus Type 1 (HTLV-1) and Xenotropic Murine Leukemia Virus-Related Virus (XMRV) Coinfection in Tehran, Iran.},
journal = {Journal of pharmacy & bioallied sciences},
year = {2018},
doi = {10.4103/jpbs.JPBS_25_18},
note = {PubMed: 30237687},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/keshavarz-2018-survey-human},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-28. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/keshavarz-2018-survey-human
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