More MS news articles for May 2002

Multiple sclerosis and Epstein-Barr virus

http://www.pulsus.com/Infdis/13_02/mari_ed.htm

Canadian Journal of Infectious Diseases
March/April 2002, Volume 13, Number 2 : 111-118
RA Marrie, C Wolfson

OBJECTIVE:

To evaluate the epidemiological evidence for an etiological role of Epstein-Barr virus in multiple sclerosis (MS).

DATA SOURCES:

MEDLINE and Cochrane Library searches of the medical literature identified 24 studies.

DATA EXTRACTION:

Studies were categorized as seroepidemiological, case-control or historical cohort, and were then classified within each group according to methodological rigour using criteria derived from published guidelines for the epidemiological study of MS.

DATA SYNTHESIS:

There was significant variability in the quality of evidence, and while two well-designed cohort studies found increased relative risks of MS in subjects with infectious mononucleosis, results from other studies were unconvincing.

CONCLUSIONS:

The evidence was insufficient to accept or reject the hypothesis that Epstein-Barr virus has an etiological role in MS. Further study, ideally using large samples of incident cases with blinded, trained interviewers using confirmatory sources for recalled data, is needed.