Multiple Sclerosis

            I am going to write about multiple sclerosis and how it can be related to the Epstein-Barr virus. I am also going to mention some other factors that have been blamed for this disease. It is first important to mention what multiple sclerosis is and what it does to effect the normal functioning of the human body.
             Multiple sclerosis is and autoimmune disease that affects mostly young adults. Some of the symptoms involved are visual difficulties, urinary incontinence, and problems with muscle control. "In this disease, myelin sheaths in the CNS are gradually destroyed, reduced to nonfunctional hardened sheaths called scleroses-. (Marieb) The loss of the myelin results in short-circuiting of the current that successive nodes are being excited more slowly than usual, which will eventualy result in impulse conduction ceasing. "250,000 to 350,000 people in the United States have multiple sclerosis and it affects women almost twice as much as it does men-. (Finesilver) The course of the disease is difficult to predict. .
             "The precise cause of the MS is unknown, but is likely to be the result of multiple factors.""(Finesilver) An environmental cause has been suggested since most cases have occurred in the northern part of the US. It is also been proven that the body's production of gamma interferon increases the severity of MS. Such infectious agents such as Epstein-Barr virus, the rubella virus, and herpes virus 6, have also been presumed as causative factors. The relationship between the Epstein-Barr virus and MS is very interesting. " Investigators have discovered that people with the highest levels of antibodies directed against EBV "possibly indicating a history of severe infection were more than 30 times as likely to develop multiple sclerosis later in lie than those with the fewest antibodies-. (Gottlieb) Those people carry such antibodies as IgA against EBC VCA (viral capsid antigen) and IgG against VNA (nuclear antigen).