Dr. Roger Dodd of the American Red Cross spoke recently at the Zagreb Conference about possible effects of the retrovirus XMRV and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) on the blood supply.
Dr. Dodd laid out a number of possible scenarios. The retrovirus XMRV may be irrelevant to the safety of the blood supply in which case people with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome can donate blood.
The other end of the spectrum is a very serious scenario indeed. In this scenario the blood supply may well be contaminated already by a potentially dangerous retrovirus.
Dr. Dodd said that the Red Cross needs more information, not least of which would be a reliable test for detecting XMRV and rates of infection in the blood donor population.
"He also provided a list of infections that are putatively associated with CFS. What was impressive about Dr. Dodd’s list was it’s size; it contained enteroviruses, Epstein-Barr virus, cytomegalovirus, HHV-6 and 7, B-19 parvovirus, hepatitis C virus, HTLV (DeFrietas), spumavirus, Chlamydia pneumoniae, Coxiella Burnetti, Brucella and Toxoplasma."
http://blog.aboutmecfs.org/?p=1637