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"Kutapressin is a drug made from porcine (pig) liver that has been used, apparently with no bad side effects, to treat herpes infections (such as shingles) since the 1940s. When CFS was first identified in the early 1980s, it was thought to be caused by one of the herpes viruses, the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), and so a group of researchers in Texas decided to test Kutapressin's effects on CFS patients.
"It is not known how Kutapressin works, but researchers theorize that it may affect the production of lymphokines like interleukin-2; an overproduction of lymphokines can cause not only perturbations of the immune system, but also symptoms similar to those seen in CFS.
"In the informal Texas study, 270 CFS patients were treated with at least ten injections of Kutapressin.
"Patients' response to Kutapressin appeared to be at least partially dose-related; 96 percent of the patients who received more than 40 injections had notable or marked improvement in their symptoms. Of the patients who received 11-40 injections of Kutapressin, 71 percent reported the same level of improvement.
"There was only one bad reaction to Kutapressin injection out of more than 8000 injections of the drug, according to the Texas researchers; this patient complained that some symptoms worsened, and the drug was stopped.
"At the current time, there are tentative plans to test the efficacy of Kutapressin in treating AIDS, as well as plans for formal tests of Kutapressin in CFS patients."
http://www.chronicillnet.org/CFS/Ostrom/book_ToC.html
"Drug therapies for chronic fatigue are becoming more common among practitioners of drug medicine. Drugs, in my judgment, have no valid place in the care of people suffering from chronic fatigue. Drugs work by blocking, impairing or inactivating enzymes. Almost all drugs increase oxidant stress on tissues. This is the reason why there are no drugs in the PDR that do not have any side effects.
"The judicious short-term use of drugs, of course, may be necessary to manage health problems that are often associated with chronic fatigue."
The Canary and Chronic Fatigue by Majid Ali, M.D.