You get EBV infection before MS in the US army study proof that EBV is the cause of MS…let’s get vaccinating but can you get MS before EBV infection indicating EBV is not the cause of MS. This study looks at Canadians and says yep there are cases before detected EBV infection. They find 25 percent fit the bill….does the idea of cause crumple and profG is off down the wrong rabbit hole.
This study argues that EBV is not the cause, it could be a cause but not the cause.
I wonder how many rotten tomatoes will be thrown their way by the EBV fan channel supporters…if they don’t get up and seek an explanation they are not scientists. It is weird that those people with MS before EBV got infected at an average of about Forty years compared to about twenty. So this is really odd…they have not come into contact with EBV at an earlier age…what happened to these people were they abducted by aliens?
Now it really doesn’t surprise me that there are EBV negative individuals with MS. The simple explanation is that they didn’t look hard enough to find the EBV. This is surely a fair point as we know these tests do not prick up infection in everybody indeed the authors say there tests are not 100 percent effective and at this point I lose interest…Even in the US military study there was one that they didn’t find EBV evidence in studies in children there are certainly cases….do the pros then say this is not MS. There will always be exceptions the test look for evjdence of antibody response they don’t look for the virus…so profG will be arguing this does not disapprove the causal idea.
AuthorsD. L. Rotstein1, C. Maxwell2, H. Tremlett3, M. V. Vyas1, K. Everett4, R. Marrie5;
1University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, CANADA, 2University of Waterloo, Kitchener, ON, CANADA, 3University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, CANADA, 4ICES, Toronto, ON, CANADA, 5Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, CANADA.Abstract
Background & Objectives: Recent evidence suggests that Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection is a necessary environmental exposure for multiple sclerosis (MS) to develop. However, many previous studies have involved selected cohorts such as military personnel or clinic-based cohorts. We aimed to investigate the counterfactual – whether there are cases of MS onset preceding EBV infection – using population-based data.
Methods: We used data in Ontario, Canada (population: 16 million) from the Ontario Laboratories Information System, an electronic database which captures more than 80% of laboratory tests performed at hospital, community, and public health laboratories throughout Ontario. Data were available from January 1, 2007 to December 31, 2022 and linked with provincial health claims data. We selected individuals with a positive serum laboratory test suggesting primary EBV infection: either a positive heterophile antibody (monospot) or viral capsid antigen (VCA) IgM antibody test which have a specificity of 90-100%. The index date was defined as the date of the first positive laboratory test. We identified and described individuals who met a validated algorithm for MS (at least 3 hospital or physician claims for MS using ICD-9 code 340 and ICD-10 code G35) and had at least one demyelinating disease-related diagnostic code preceding the index date.
Results: Of 95,980 individuals who had positive laboratory tests for primary EBV infection, 300 (0.31%) met the algorithm for MS; 74 (24.7% of the 300) had at least one demyelinating disease code preceding the index date. Mean (SD) age at MS onset of these cases was 33.3 (14.3) years and 56 (75.7%) were women. Mean (SD) age at the time of the positive EBV test was 42.5 (16.1) years for these 74 people, compared to a mean age of 21.5 (10.6) years for all 95,980 individuals with a positive EBV test. Fifty-eight of the 74 (78.4%) met the full MS algorithm before the first positive EBV test, and 69 (93.2%) had a first demyelinating code-related claim before the EBV test by > 90 days.
Conclusions: Using population-based laboratory and health claims data, we found some patients with evidence of EBV infection following MS onset. Further research is required to evaluate possible explanations for EBV infection following MS onset, including misdiagnosis of MS, misclassification of EBV infection, reactivation of EBV infection, or the possibility that some cases of MS may be due to other infectious or environmental exposures.
Source: multiple-sclerosis-research.org