LONDON (REUTERS) — Multiple sclerosis, a common disease of the central nervous system, could be sexually transmitted, a British scientist said Thursday.
Dr. Christopher Hawkes, of London’s Institute of Neurology, said his analysis of published data on the illness that affects about a million people worldwide, supports the hypothesis.
Experts, however, criticized his report, saying there was no evidence to support it.
“I propose that multiple sclerosis is a sexually transmitted infection acquired principally during adolescence and mainly from infected but not necessarily symptomatic males,” he said in a report in Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.
Hawkes said it may not be the only cause of the neurological disorder, but some people may have an inherited susceptibility to a sexually transmitted infectious agent.
But the chief executive of the Multiple Sclerosis Society in Britain criticized the report, saying there is no direct evidence for sexual transmission.
“We share the view that this is pure speculation based on interpretation of data collected for other reasons,” the society’s Mike O’Donovan said in a statement.
Alastair Compston, a professor of neurology at Cambridge University, described the report as having little scientific value because it contains no new facts.
“The hypothesis falls down quickly and repeatedly in the face of known facts,” he explained.
Hawkes said migration studies and data on clusters and epidemics support the hypothesis. He noted that epidemics of MS like those in the Faroe Islands, Iceland, the Orkneys and the Shetlands suggest a rise in MS cases after the arrival of military troops.
Higher rates of MS in young, sexually active people and in cultures with more permissive sexual attitudes and drug misusers also support the hypothesis, according to Hawkes.
“This theory provides a testable hypothesis which could be addressed by a case-control study of multiple sclerosis patients and their partners,” he added.
MS is a progressive disease in which the myelin sheath that protects the brain and spinal cord is damaged or destroyed. The illness, which is most common in colder countries and rare in Africa and Asia, usually occurs in people between 20 and 40 years old.
