Friday, September 8, 1978
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MS virus link. vaccine said likely
DENVER (UPI) - Researchers said yesterday they may have isolated a virus that could be a link to multiple sclerosis and might be developed to combat the disease.
Jack Burks, a medical doctor with the Veterans Administration Hospital and University of Colorado Medical Center, said he was concerned about postmissions that a virus might cause the disease.
Multiple sclerosis destroys the insulating material of the brain and spinal cord,
causing a "short circuit" of nerve impulses. People with the disease can suffer blindness, paralysis, lack of sensation or coordination and loss of bladder or bowel control.
BURKS SAID the disease affected about 500,000 people in the United States. The disease usually affects people under the age of 40.
Burks said he and his fellow researchers had isolated a coronavirus from the brain tissue of two dead multiple sclerosis patients. The virus is known to cause
common respiratory infections in man but
in animals it causes a disease similar to
the common cold.
"I hope other laboratories will make the necessary efforts to confirm our discovery," Burks said. "Until that time, no claim can be made that our discovery is an MS virus. Our results are only preliminary."
IF VIRUSES do cause multiple sclerosis
Barks said, a vaccine might be developed.
"Although we are encouraged by our findings," he said, "much more work is required to confirm our discovery. We have not been able to isolate this virus from every MS patient. Many tests have been completed, but many more are needed before this virus can be labeled as a multiple sclerosis virus."
Burks is director of the Neurology-Virology Laboratory at the VA hospital and an assistant professor at the CU Medical Center.
University Dally Kansan