Hepatitis B vaccine linked to MS.Scientists have found that people who develop multiple sclerosis (MS) are more likely than others to have received a hepatitis B Hepatitis B Definition Hepatitis B is a potentially serious form of liver inflammation due to infection by the hepatitis B virus (HBV). It occurs in both rapidly developing (acute) and long-lasting (chronic) forms, and is one of the most common chronic vaccination vaccination, means of producing immunity against pathogens, such as viruses and bacteria, by the introduction of live, killed, or altered antigens that stimulate the body to produce antibodies against more dangerous forms. in recent years. Earlier studies investigating a link between the muscle-weakening disease and the vaccine had produced predominantly negative results. "We were very surprised" by the new finding, says study coauthor Miguel A. Hernan, an epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health The Harvard School of Public Health is (colloquially, HSPH) is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Longwood Area of the Boston, Massachusetts neighborhood of Mission Hill, next to Harvard Medical School and Cambridge, Massachusetts, in Boston. Hernan and his colleagues identified 163 MS patients in Britain who had been diagnosed with MS between 1993 and 2000. The scientists matched these patients with 1,604 people without MS who had used the same physicians' offices and were of similar age, gender, and smoking status. The MS patients were about three times as likely to have had hepatitis B shots in the 3 years preceding onset of MS symptoms as the others were during that same period, Hernan and his coworkers report in the September Neurology neurology (n  rŏl`əjē, ny–), study of the morphology, physiology, and pathology of the human nervous system. . Among the MS patients, 6.7 percent had had a recent hepatitis B vaccination, compared with 2.4, percent among the control group. The researchers stress that the new study does not prove that the vaccine causes MS. In fact, they note that more than 93 percent of MS patients identified in the study hadn't received hepatitis B shots at all. Nevertheless, the findings suggest a need for scientists to analyze the vaccine's components closely and to confirm the new results, Hernan says. "The last thing we want to do is destroy the reputation of a vaccine that has proved to be very effective and very safe," he says. Hepatitis B infects 350 million people worldwide and can lead to liver cancer Liver Cancer Definition Liver cancer is a relatively rare form of cancer but has a high mortality rate. Liver cancers can be classified into two types. or cirrhosis cirrhosis (sərō`səs), degeneration of tissue in an organ resulting in fibrosis, with nodule and scar formation. The term is most often used in relation to the liver, because that organ is most often involved in cirrhosis. ; MS affects about 2.5 million people.--N.S. |
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