People infected with HIV may enjoy a reduced risk of developing multiple sclerosis, researchers reveal today.
A major study of NHS patients in England found that people with HIV were 62% less likely than others to develop MS.
Researchers say it is possible the drugs used to treat HIV might help prevent the disease – or it may be simply a result of the virus dampening the immune system.
Also reporting in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, Danish researchers report an attempt to use anti-HIV drugs to treat MS. The project proved inconclusive.
The study in England involved some 21,000 people infected with HIV together with another 5.3 million people who sought hospital treatment for minor illnesses and injuries.
The researchers found the longer people had been infected with HIV, the less likely they were to develop MS – although the numbers involved were small. Just one case of MS occurred among people infected with HIV for at least five years – although six would have been expected.
Researcher Professor Julian Gold, of the Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney, Australia, writes in the journal: "If subsequent studies demonstrate there is a causal protective effect of HIV and/or its treatment, and if the magnitude of it proves to be similar…this would be the largest protective effect of any factor yet observed in relation to the development of MS."
HIV and lower risk of multiple sclerosis: beginning to unravel a mystery using a record-linked database study Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry 5 August 2014; doi:10.1136/jnnp-2014-307932 [abstract]
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