Letter: Nevadans lead way in vital research

Thanks to the Las Vegas Sun for its Dec. 16 editorial, "Fatigue syndrome all too real." As your editorial pointed out, for far too long chronic fatigue syndrome has been pushed aside as a "yuppie disease."

Now, thanks to leading-edge medical research being conducted by University of Nevada School of Medicine physicians through the Center of Excellence for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, we recognize CFS is a chronic, debilitating virus. Scientists in the university's microbiology and immunology department have already started to investigate the virus responsible for the disease. Under the leadership of Dr. Greg Pari, an expert in latent human cytomegalovirus, researchers have discovered that HCMV is a strand of the herpes virus that affects patients with a compromised immune system.

Thanks to the generosity of longtime Nevada philanthropists, Annette and Harvey Whittemore, the pace of research into this disease has been accelerated and the possibility of developing therapies for those afflicted by the syndrome have increased. And the research that will lead to a cure is happening here in Nevada.

Mark N. Levine, Las Vegas

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