Immunoglobulin M and Immunoglobulin G Seronegative Q Fever: A Hypothesis for Veterans? Medically Unexplained Chronic Multi-symptom Illnesses.Well, it is a hypothesis – without any evidence, it seems.
Chagaris MJ, Smith RC, Goldstein AL.
J Spec Oper Med. 2012 Spring;12(1):37-48.
Abstract
We present Q fever as a credible hypothesis for Gulf War Veterans Illnesses (GWVIs) and as a possible etiology for prevalent symptomologies affecting currently serving servicemembers.
Q fever is caused by the bacteria Coxiella burnetii, which is endemic throughout the Middle East. Q fever may manifest in many forms of widely varying and often inconstant symptoms. Due to false-negative interpretations in current and past diagnostic testing, Q fever has not received appropriate consideration as a possible causative agent for medically unexplained veterans illnesses.
Review of current literature invites us to consider that a form of Q fever involving an incomplete immune response is a potential cause of these debilitating illnesses.
We hypothesize C. burnetii infection coincidental to exposures suppressing antibody-specific immune response results in infection mediated by immunoglobulin D (IgD). Literature indicates that successful treatment for this form of Q fever requires the concurrent administration of doxycycline and hydroxychloroquine.
Usually at the acute phase of an infection you get an IgM titer increase, and after the acute phase the IgM titers level off. And an IgG titer increase follows that, usually persistent for life, even when the pathogen is long gone ("Adaptive Immune System"). So it is intruging that IgD titers might be raised and not IgM or IgG – but where is the evidence?
Because, I've seen this before and I bloody hate it: These f*cking "out of the blue" hypothesis without any evidence. Stupid quacks who write things like "Oh, CFS could be an allergy to an pathogen" without any shroud of evidence for their quack hypothesis. Is it too much to ask that they do some minimal testing for their hypothesis and supply at least some results – before publishing?
FYI, the author named MJ Chagaris has the symptoms and did all the initial research trying to find an answer to his problem. They have to say "hypothesize" because otherwise the scientific community would call foul with only one case to report. I know this because the second author, R Smith is a personal friend.
ReplyDeleteWith one(!) case to report it is a case report and most definitely not "A Hypothesis for Veterans". The fucking audacity to question whether this might be "a hypothesis" "for Veterans" (ALL???) is mind boggling. And it stays a case report until there are more veterans tested.
ReplyDeleteAnd that the author himself has the symptoms himself makes me even more skeptical. And that you are a "friend" of another author does not help either. This looks like people wanting desperately proofing their pet theory right. If anything, your personally motivated defense has done the opposite – if you want to convince me, you should have sticked to the medical facts and most importantly shown me more facts.
And what ever these authors found, they are overselling it quite a bit – and people overselling medical results are usually called quacks.