IS THERE A CASE FOR A VIRUS ETIOLOGY IN MULTIPLE-SCLEROSIS

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a devastating demyelinating disease with a very high prevalence in North-East Scotland and in the Orkney and Shet land Islands. MS appears to be a multifactorial disorder with environm ental and generic elements and it has been proposed that these, in tan dem, provoke an autoimmune response giving rise to the disease. Althou gh there is no direct evidence of a specific virus being involved in M S, there are nevertheless grounds for suspecting a viral association. This review discusses these aspects of MS and suggests that a more agg ressive approach to unravelling the role of viruses is needed.