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Despite concerns that the hepatitis B vaccine may trigger some cases
of multiple sclerosis (MS), 2 new studies fail
to find any link between the vaccine and the autoimmune disease.
Several people developed MS shortly after receiving
the hepatitis vaccine in the 1990s, raising concerns that the
vaccine may have caused the disease. Since MS is an autoimmune disease,
where the immune system attacks healthy tissue by mistake, some experts
suspected that the hepatitis B might trigger an autoimmune response in
some way.
Based on a few European studies that detected a statistically insignificant
increase in MS cases among people immunized against hepatitis B, France
temporarily stopped its school-based hepatitis B vaccination program.
Merck Research Laboratories provided
some of the funding for the study.
The results of a second study published in the same issue was designed
to help allay the concerns of people with MS who fear that vaccinations
may lead to flare-ups of their symptoms.
Some of the funding for the study was
provided by Aventis Pasteur and Aventis Pasteur-Merck Sharp and Dohme.
The New England Journal of Medicine
February 1, 2001;344:319-332, 372-373
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