A GENETIC-MARKER AND FAMILY HISTORY STUDY OF THE UPSTATE NEW-YORK MULTIPLE-SCLEROSIS CLUSTER

We report nine additional cases of new-onset multiple sclerosis (MS) a mong employees of an upstate New York manufacturing plant that uses zi nc as a primary metal. These cases, identified during the decade 1980 to 1989, had clinical onset of the disease between 1979 and 1987. The new eases confirm the increased incidence of MS previously reported in the plant population for the 1970 to 1979 decade. The MS subjects in this occupationally based cluster do not seem different from other MS patients with regard to rates of familial MS or the frequencies of all eles for human leukocyte (HLA-DR) antigens or transferrin. The frequen cy distribution of alleles for transferrin (an iron- and zinc-binding protein) may differ in these and other MS subjects compared with contr ols.