The Connecticut CFIDS & FM Association, Inc.
P.O. Box 3010 Milford, CT 06460 InfoLine: (800) 952-2037

Fellow CFS Patients,

New York City CFS Specialist Dr. Susan Levine is collaborating with the Human Herpes Virus 6 (HHV-6) Foundation on a research project investigating several new blood tests for the presence of HHV-6 in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) patients. The Connecticut CFIDS and FM Association (CT-CFIDS/FM) is coordinating the recruitment of the CFS volunteers to be tested in this study. This is a great opportunity for CT-CFIDS/FM to support cutting-edge CFS research. It is also a great opportunity for you as a CFS patient to have the latest state-of-the-art tests performed for HHV-6, none of which are yet commercially available. In addition to CFS patients, we also need to supply healthy control volunteers (your friends, family members, etc.) for the study. We strongly encourage you to participate in this study and help us recruit healthy controls if at all possible as detailed below.

WHAT: Single blood draw for laboratory HHV-6 analyses on a single date to be determined (see below).

CFS PATIENT PARTICIPANTS: Must meet the CFS diagnostic criteria. If you have been diagnosed with FM, you must also meet the CFS diagnostic criteria in order to participate.

HEALTHY CONTROL PARTICIPANTS: Must not have any current disease and must be free of colds, flu, or other infections.

DATE: All participants selected for the study are to be scheduled for a blood draw all on the same day in August to facilitate a same-day, one-time bulk overnight shipment of all samples to the research lab. Tentative dates currently being considered are August 7, 8, 15, or 16. Please note that only one of these four dates will be selected on which all participants must be sampled. This date will be selected soon, in part based on the day on which the most participants are available.

TIME: On the date chosen, blood draws will be scheduled in staggered fashion at several different times throughout the day, most likely between approximately 10 AM to 3 PM, depending on the total number of participants to be sampled.

WHERE: 115 E 72nd St. (just east of Park Avenue), New York City. CT-CFIDS/FM will be organizing car pools to NYC on the day of the sampling and any groups of patients riding Metro North.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE: If you or others that you know are interested in participating as a CFS patient and/or a healthy control, please enter the 7 items of information below and reply via e-mail AS SOON AS POSSIBLE:

PLEASE DO NOT CONTACT DR. LEVINE'S OFFICE OR THE HHV-6 FOUNDATION REGARDING THIS STUDY.

1) Your Name:

2) Your E-Mail Address:

3) Your Phone Number:

4) Number of and Name(s) of CFS Patient Participant(s):

5) Number of and Name(s) of Any Healthy Controls You Can Bring:

6) Antiviral Medications: Please indicate the name of any ANTIVIRAL medication you are on. (Please DO NOT include information on any other medications, only antivirals if you are currently on them.)

7) On Which of the Following Days (Aug. 7, 8, 15, and 16) would you be available to participate: (Ideally, it would be great if you could indicate that you are available on all 4 of these dates, or as many of them as possible, to give us the greatest flexibility in picking the sampling date. Your flexibility and cooperation on scheduling will be greatly appreciated. Again, we will only be picking one of these four dates, and on that one date all participants must be sampled.)

Based on the response received, we will be selecting the date and time for sampling and contacting the participants selected for the study as soon as possible. Again CT-CFIDS/FM strongly encourages you to participate. We would greatly appreciate your support on this important research study.

Thanks!

Jim DeMay

CT-CFIDS/FM Association

Connecticut CFIDS & FM Association, Inc. members should just reply ASAP to Jean Lareau.

Back | Home | Top

Member Of

Disclaimer: The ideas expressed by each author, quoted individual or person posting to this web sites message board are strictly his or her own. Some of the information contained herein is intended to help persons with CFIDS & FM make informed decisions about their health. However, The Connecticut CFIDS & FM Association, Inc. and the creator of this web site do not dispense medical advice or endorse any specific medical hypothesis or product and assume no responsibility for any medical treatment or other activity undertaken by visitors to this web site. For medical advice please consult your healthcare provider. Furthermore this web site contains numerous links to third party Web Sites and paid advertisements. The Connecticut CFIDS & FM Association, Inc. and the creator of this web site do not control or endorse the content of third party Web Sites or products and services offered by advertisers. This information is provided as a service and not as a recommendation.