Let's start with reassurance: the Omicron *doesn't* cause multiple sclerosis. But a new and comprehensive study reveals that another virus does. And this also has consequences for dealing with the corona virus. And no, it's not clickbait (although it's really successful).
The Epstein-Barr virus is one of the most prolific and numerous viruses that the human race suffers from. Almost all humans today contract the virus during their lifetime and most will not differentiate it from a normal winter illness, if at all. For some, it will cause the "kissing disease": fatigue, sore throat and fever, mainly, which last for several months.
Doesn't sound so bad so far, does it? But Epstein-Barr has hidden secrets that he began to reveal in the last decade. Specifically, it enjoys a special advantage over its cousins: it is able to penetrate the B cells of the immune system, where it thrives, well, forever. From the moment it enters - it does not leave the body. And so, throughout the rest of the carrier's life, he can occasionally return to activity and cause new troubles.
what trouble hard There are strong suspicions regarding its connection with several types of cancer like Burkitt's and Hodgkin's lymphoma, although it is not yet clear how exactly it increases the chance of developing these diseases. And now, finally, particularly strong evidence has been received for the connection of Epstein-Barr with another cursed disease that we already know very well: multiple sclerosis. And not just a connection: a study conducted on ten million military personnel in the United States revealed that almost every case of multiple sclerosis started after infection with a virus. [1]
What is multiple sclerosis? In two words: a cursed disease. It develops when the immune system gets confused and starts attacking the fatty layer around the nerves. The result is an accumulation of symptoms over time, ranging from fatigue and weakness to difficulties in speaking, partial blindness and difficulty in walking.
Although researchers already suspected that the virus was responsible for some MS cases, it was difficult to prove it for a simple reason: more than ninety percent of the world's citizens carry the virus. This means that it is necessary to go through the medical data of a huge number of people, to find out whether the few who were not infected with the virus, are at a lower risk of developing multiple sclerosis.
In a study published recently, the researchers went through the medical data of ten million soldiers in the United States Army. All those soldiers undergo regular blood tests that are kept refrigerated, so that they can be tested at a later stage and identify whether they contain the Epstein-Barr virus.
Of all the soldiers, only about five percent did not carry the virus when they were first tested. Out of all the ten million, almost a thousand - 955 - developed multiple sclerosis later in their lives. And now for the great finding: out of all the almost a thousand patients with multiple sclerosis, only one did not carry the virus. Several dozen of them did not carry the virus when they were first tested, but contracted it later, before they were diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
The sharp-eyed must have noticed that infection with the Epstein-Barr virus does not necessarily cause the development of multiple sclerosis. In fact, the chance of a carrier of the virus developing the disease is a little less than one in ten thousand. This is not an unusual phenomenon. Other viruses also cause severe side effects with a relatively low frequency: for example, only a small part of those infected with the polio virus develop permanent disability, similar to the fact that only a few of those infected with the corona virus find their way to the hospital. Why? It is not clear.
Despite our lack of understanding regarding the exact mechanism by which the virus causes multiple sclerosis, and despite the fact that the disease is relatively rare, this is evidence with enormous weight regarding the connection between it and the Epstein-Barr virus. In fact, it implies that almost all MS cases in the world are caused by infection with the virus. This means that if we manage to find a vaccine against the Epstein-Barr virus, we will also find an answer to the disease that makes the lives of almost 2.5 million people miserable around the world. And as written in the review of the study -
"Now that the initial trigger for multiple sclerosis has been identified, it may be possible to eradicate the disease." [2]
The desired eradication will not arrive in the next year or two, but we may get closer to it much sooner than expected, mainly thanks to the dizzying success of the mRNA vaccines in the last year. Moderna and Pfizer were the first pharmaceutical companies to produce successful mRNA vaccines. Now Moderna has announced – again, at the very beginning of 2022 – that it has begun testing an mRNA vaccine against the Epstein-Barr virus in humans [3]. It is not an exaggeration to claim that if the experiments are successful, then multiple sclerosis will become a thing of the past - the kind of shocking stories that our future children will have a hard time believing were possible before they were born.
Last but not least, I promised a few words about the corona virus. The fact that the Epstein-Barr virus causes multiple sclerosis - even if only in a very low frequency - emphasizes once again how difficult it is for us to understand the full effects of viruses on the body. All the more so for a new virus that we have never encountered before. Namely, the corona virus.
There is no need to go to horror scenarios regarding the possible long-term effect of the corona. Even if infection with the virus causes only one-percent to develop unusual symptoms years after infection, then the medical books will benefit from the addition of a new disease on a scale at least as extensive as that of multiple sclerosis.
what is my point Don't catch the virus. There is a thought today in Israel and in the world, according to which "we will all be infected". It's not unreasonable (in general), but there's no reason to try to get infected on purpose, or not to minimize the chance of getting infected where possible. And of course - get vaccinated. The vaccine dramatically reduces the risk of serious illness, and thus also certainly reduces the risk of long-term damage to the body.
But let's leave the corona for a moment, and we will return to the main topic: thanks to medical science, we now know the origin of one of the evil diseases that disrupts the lives of millions, and soon we will also be able to deal with it effectively. And after that - the sky is the limit. Medical science may still progress slowly, but the pace of discoveries and the development of answers is only increasing. I would not be surprised if by the end of the century - and in my opinion long before then - we will succeed in eliminating a large part of the metabolic and genetic diseases that have accompanied humanity since time immemorial.
More of the topic in Hayadan:
