Qiu, Xiaoxing, Swanson, Priscilla, Tang, Ning et al. · Transfusion · 2012 · DOI
Researchers tested blood samples from over 2,000 donors worldwide to see if they carried XMRV, a virus that had been suggested as a possible cause of ME/CFS. They found very little evidence that XMRV was present in most people's blood. The small amount of positive results they found were likely false positives caused by confusion with a different virus (HTLV-I) that shares similar genetic sequences.
Early case reports associated XMRV with ME/CFS, raising major concerns about disease transmission through blood transfusion and possible viral etiology. This large, multi-population study provided important negative evidence that helped resolve controversy around XMRV prevalence in blood supplies and informed the broader scientific reassessment of XMRV's role in ME/CFS.
This study does not prove XMRV never causes ME/CFS or that it is not present in some ME/CFS patients specifically—it only shows low prevalence in blood donor populations. The study cannot establish whether seroreactivity patterns differ in ME/CFS populations versus healthy donors. Cross-sectional design limits ability to determine causal relationships.
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
Qiu, Xiaoxing, Swanson, Priscilla, Tang, Ning, Leckie, Gregor W, Devare, Sushil G, Schochetman, Gerald, et al. (2012). Seroprevalence of xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus in normal and retrovirus-infected blood donors.. Transfusion. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1537-2995.2011.03395.x
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-qiu-2012-seroprevalence-xenotropic,
author = {Qiu, Xiaoxing and Swanson, Priscilla and Tang, Ning and Leckie, Gregor W and Devare, Sushil G and Schochetman, Gerald and Hackett, John},
title = {Seroprevalence of xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus in normal and retrovirus-infected blood donors.},
journal = {Transfusion},
year = {2012},
doi = {10.1111/j.1537-2995.2011.03395.x},
note = {PubMed: 22023235},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/qiu-2012-seroprevalence-xenotropic},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-26. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/qiu-2012-seroprevalence-xenotropic
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