Today's daily press has an article titled "Group eyes possible links between MS, Gulf War." The article is available online here. In the article a National Multiple Scleroris Society spokesman refers to a study showing increasing incidence of MS in Kuwait after 1993 as support for urging Congress to appropriate $15 million to see if there is a connection to military service in the Gulf War. As is frequently the case there are no links to the source documents in the Daily Press online article.
A review of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society site did not turn up any research that seemed related to this subject. Although the Society's spokesperson was asking for $15 million defense dollars and was quoted in the press on the subject, I thought it strange to not find any mention on their website.
A Google search did lead me to a 2005 article published in European Neurology,
Epidemiology of Multiple Sclerosis in Kuwait: New Trends in Incidence and Prevalence
A.F. Alshubaili, K. Alramzy, Y.M. Ayyad, Y. Gerish
Department of Neurology, Ibn Sina Hospital, Safat, Kuwait
The article is not available free but the abstract does cite "Gulf War as a key term and reads:
The epidemiology of multiple sclerosis (MS) is undergoing dramatic changes; MS is occurring with increased frequency in many parts of the world. In this retrospective study, we examined the changes in incidence and prevalence of MS in Kuwait in the period between 1993 and 2000. We analyzed the records of patients with clinically defined and laboratory supported MS. The total incidence rate increased from 1.05/100,000 population in 1993 to 2.62/100,000 in 2000. The increased incidence of MS was most pronounced among Kuwaiti women (from 2.26/100,000 in 1993 to 7.79/100,000 in 2000. The total prevalence rate increased from 6.68/100,000 in 1993 to 14.77/100,000 in 2000. It was much higher for Kuwaitis (31.15/100,000), as compared to non-Kuwaitis (5.55/ 100,000), in a complete reversal of the pattern observed before 1990. The prevalence was also higher among Kuwaiti women (35.54/100,000), as compared with Kuwaiti men (26.65/100,000). In conclusion, the incidence and prevalence of MS in Kuwait has increased between the early and late 1990s with no signs of leveling off. In a geographic area that was previously associated with low prevalence, local environmental factors may be responsible for these dramatic changes.
On its face it would suggest that the reported increase relating to the Gulf War time period and the associated war time environmental factors might bear connection. And if a connection existed perhaps a common etiology existed for Gulf War veterans. The Google search (multiple sclerosis kuwait) that turned up this article had 122,000 citations, rich fruit for a little further research. This lead me to Disability Online and then to the Multiple Sclerosis International Federation which has an excellent search tool. A search for "prevalence" brought 93 results.
Here are just some of the abstracts:
| . | Prevalence of Multiple Sclerosis Door-to-Door Survey in Maltepe, Istanbul, Turkey | 20 Jun 2006 |
| This study investigates the prevalence of MS in the district of Maltepe, Istanbul, Turkey. The prevalence rates ofMS in the Turkish population living in a district of Istanbul are considerably higher than originally thought and similar to those recently recorded in Sicily and Germany. | ||
| Prevalence of multiple sclerosis in Belgrade, Yugoslavia | 20 Aug 2002 |
| A study of MS prevalence with information about disease course in a modern population in Yugoslavia. Between 1985 and 1996 the prevalence of MS in this region seemed to be increasing | |
| Trends in prevalence and incidence of multiple sclerosis in Bajo Aragon, Spain. | 17 Nov 2003 | |
| An increased prevalence of MS in the area of Bajo Aragon, northeastern Spain, has been calculated between 1994 and 2002. This increased prevalence is more likely to be due to improvement on case ascertainment than to increasing incidence. However, further prospective incidence studies in larger populations are warranted. | ||
| Progressive increase in incidence and prevalence of multiple sclerosis in Newcastle, Australia: a 35-year study. | 05 Aug 2003 | |
| This epidemiological study shows an increase in incidence (new cases) and prevalence (total number of cases) of multiple sclerosis over the last five decades in an area of Australia. | ||
| . | Prevalence estimates for MS in the United States and evidence of an increasing trend for women | 22 Jan 2002 | |||
A 50% increase was observed in the number of women reporting MS for 1991 through 1994 vs 1982 through 1986.
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Although there are many more the articles abstracted above all seem to point to a increasing general incidence or among women (as the Kuwait article does), and in areas considerably removed from the effects of the Gulf War. One might conclude that the connection is more tenous than $15,000,000 would support.
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