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Brain Advance Access originally published online on September 15, 2004
Brain 2004 127(11):2491-2497; doi:10.1093/brain/awh283
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Brain Vol. 127 No. 11 © Guarantors of Brain 2004; all rights reserved

Childhood infections and risk of multiple sclerosis

Peter Bager1, Nete Munk Nielsen1, Kristine Bihrmann1, Morten Frisch1, Henrik Hjalgrim1, Jan Wohlfart1, Nils Koch-Henriksen2,3, Mads Melbye1 and Tine Westergaard1

1 Department of Epidemiology Research, Danish Epidemiology Science Centre, Statens Serum Institut, 2 The Danish Multiple Sclerosis Register and 3 National Institute of Public Health, Copenhagen, Denmark

Correspondence to: Peter Bager, Department of Epidemiology Research, Danish Epidemiology Science Centre, Statens Serum Institut, 5 Artillerivej, DK-2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark. E-mail: pbg{at}ssi.dk

Multiple sclerosis has been hypothesized to be the result from an aberrant immune response possibly triggered by delayed exposure to a common childhood infection. Because the vast majority of previous studies testing this hypothesis have been based on a history of childhood infections recalled years to decades later in adulthood, we investigated whether age at six common childhood infections was associated with risk of multiple sclerosis, using information recalled in the childhood of a historical cohort of school children in Denmark. Cases included all individuals with multiple sclerosis in the country born between 1940 and 1975, who had attended school in the capital, Copenhagen. Controls were age- and sex-matched peers. School health records were obtained for all subjects. The records contained information on measles, pertussis, scarlet fever, birth order, sibship size, social class of the father, school years, and name of school and attended school classes for children born since 1940 (ncases = 455, ncontrols = 1801). For children born since 1950, the records also contained information on rubella, varicella and mumps (ncases = 182, ncontrols = 690). Neither age at infection with measles, rubella, varicella, mumps, pertussis and scarlet fever (upper age limit, 14 years) nor the cumulative number of these infections between the ages of 10 and 14 years was associated with the risk of multiple sclerosis. In addition, the risk of multiple sclerosis was not associated with birth order or social class. No clustering of multiple sclerosis in school classes was observed. Our findings suggest that measles, rubella, mumps, varicella, pertussis and scarlet fever, even if acquired late in childhood, are not associated with increased risk of multiple sclerosis later in life.


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