Rider to multiple sclerosis test

Press, 29 October 1977, Page 27

Rider to multiple sclerosis test

By JOHN BROWN Two teams or scientists ! in the United States who ; reported development of a I test that others heralded i as a milestone in multiple sclerosis research have said that the test should not be used because it is unreliable. The test and its implication that a virus caused t multiple sclerosis gained } worldwide attention in I February last year when ! the British Medical Journal, the “Lancet" pubi lished an editorial entitled ■ “A Milestone in Multiple I Sclerosis.” But in a letter published in this month’s “Lancet”

the researchers who first reported the test described it as “too erratic to be useful.” Multiple sclerosis, which affects more than 3000 New' Zealanders and their families, is recognised throughout the world as the main disease causing physical disability in young adults.

In the “Lancet” editorial published last year, reflecting the views of many scientists, it was said that the United States researchers’ findings seemed to remove multiple sclerosis from among the diseases whose cause was unknown. The findings, the editorial said, placed multiple sclerosis “squarely in the sector of infectious diseases, although the precise nature of the virus has yet to be determined.” That editorial and subsequent developments indicate some of the difficulties of confirming scientific observations and the impact of those difficulties on the research process.

Several research groups in the United States, Britain, Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands have recreated the experiments

but were unable to confirm the findings. The scientists who reported the original test said they still considered their results valid, but were perplexed by the “unusual properties” of the agent they belived they had identified in specimens from people with multiple sclerosis. Their letter .to this month’s “Lancet” criticised the publication’s 1976 editorial for leading to new’s reports that “credited us with claims not made in our reports.” “This unwarranted publicity,” the letter said, “raised false hopes and brought forth numerous letters from patients throughout the world, which required answers to state the unfortunate truth that even if the agent were the cause of multiple sclerosis, this fact would almost surely not affect the treatment of the disease.” Dr Werner Henle, one of the researchers, said in an interview that the “Lancet” letter was “not intended as a retraction” because “We hope that at some future time when the agent which causes multiple sclerosis is found, we will be rehabilitated.”