Vaccination is not a risk factor for multiple sclerosis

Data from more than 12,000 patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) formed the basis of a study from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) that examined the population's behavior regarding immunization in the face of MS. It appears that five years prior to diagnosis, MS patients were statistically less likely to receive vaccines than comparison groups. Therefore, there was no positive correlation between vaccinations and the development of MS.

MS is now considered an autoimmune neurological disease in which the immune system attacks the brain and spinal cord. It is most likely to occur in young people under 40 years of age. Vaccines are often mentioned as a possible risk factor for MS. Professor Bernhard Hemmer, director of the Department of Neurology at the TUM Hospital, Klinkum rechts der Isar, is badociated with scientists from the medical department and the Bavarian Association of Medical Doctors. health insurance (KVB) to badyze a large KVB dataset representative of the general population. . The data covered more than 200,000 people, including more than 12,000 patients with multiple sclerosis. The study was published on Tuesday, July 30, 2019 in the Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Vaccination rate lower in MS patients

The researchers found that five years before the diagnosis, people who developed MS had received fewer vaccines than those who did not. This applied to all vaccines studied: pneumococcal, meningococcal, mumps, measles, rubella, chickenpox, human papillomavirus (HPV), hepatitis A and B, tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) and the flu. The effect was particularly pronounced in the last three cases: the control group had received many more vaccines than individuals who later developed MS.

"The causes are still mysterious: people may perceive the disease long before they are diagnosed and thus avoid overloading their immune systems, these effects are in fact evident in our data. have a protective effect that prevents the immune system from attacking the nervous system.Anyway, given the large volume of data badyzed, it can be conclusively baderted that there is no evidence that the Recent vaccination increases the risk of MS or the onset of an initial episode of MS, "Alexander Hapfelmeier, lead author of the study, explains.

No obvious effect in Crohn's disease or psoriasis

The researchers also wanted to exclude the possibility that the results are an underlying effect of chronic diseases in general. They therefore badyzed data from two other groups: Crohn's disease patients, an inflammatory bowel disorder, and patients with psoriasis, a chronic skin disease. Vaccinations of these patients were also recorded five years before their diagnosis.

However, these patients had received as many vaccines as the healthy control group. "Thus, the results are not due solely to the presence of a chronic inflammatory disease, but to a specific MS behavior," says Bernhard Hemmer, adding: "Other studies have already shown that people with MS exhibited atypical behavior and medical history For example, they are more prone to mental illness and tend to have fewer children. All this clearly indicates that MS is perceived well before the onset Therefore, we need to find appropriate markers to diagnose the disease earlier.We consider this to be one of our most important tasks. "