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Brian Vastag

JAMA. 2001;285:279-281.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Washington—Amid scattered reports of physicians prescribing antiviral and antibiotic medicines for patients with multiple sclerosis (MS)—both unproven against the disease—research into infectious triggers for MS is generating controversy over two pathogenic suspects, one a virus, the other a bacterium.

In 1998, separate teams of researchers announced that they had found higher-than-expected amounts of human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) and Chlamydia pneumoniae in the central nervous systems of MS patients, findings that have been roundly debated. And while the two organisms appear in different chapters of the microbiological textbook, their paths through the scientific wringer have been similar.

The advocates present compelling cases and confirmatory data; the skeptics find flaws and fail to replicate findings. Like a boxing match, each round of journal reports and letters tilts the balance, only to be knocked back by the next month's offerings. The instigating scientists—a team at Vanderbilt University seeking C pneumoniae . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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