This NMSS bulletin on current research highlights some work they funded supposedly on CPn in MS. lIt essentially talks about a retrospective study in which people who developed MS were evaluated via their medical records for the use of antibiotics in the previous 3 yr period to see if having been on antibiotics for other things, like bladder infections, influenced the development of MS. link to study here
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/quer ... med_docsum
The assumption is that if people had taken CPn active antibiotics then there would be less MS if MS were related to CPn, however it turned out that having taken CPn active antibiotics did not affect people's risk of developing MS at all. If this had been a well designed retrospective look at the issue it might be important but it is not.
conclusion quote from tha abstract:
In conclusion, use of antibiotics active against C. pneumoniae was not associated with a decreased risk of short-term multiple sclerosis. The observed lower risk of multiple sclerosis for penicillin users needs to be confirmed in other populations.
First, CPn active antibiotics at subinhibitory concentrations, or even at what should be inhibitory concentrations DOES NOT eradicate CPn.
See this link.
http://www.pubmedcentral.gov/articleren ... d=11796350
We found that a 30-day treatment with azithromycin, clarithromycin, and levofloxacin at concentrations comparable to those achieved in the pulmonary epithelial lining fluid reduced but did not eliminate C. pneumoniae in continuously infected HEp-2 cells.
This paper was written by a person who was looking at infections in the lungs. It is becoming apparent that asthma is in fact a chronic CPn infection and this work is in that field, but the brain is an even more isolated place than the lungs which are very open to the blood supply (obviously), yet even in that lung tissue the abx did not eliminate the germs. How could anyone assume a short course of abx could impact a brain infection of CPn if there was one?
Can you imagine anyone taking a study that looked at short courses of abx use prior to a tuberculosis diagnosis seriously?
The people who did this retrospective look at this issue do not understand the germ they are investigating. No conclusion at all can be drawn from it.
It is essentially meaningless though unfortunately there will be those who say "the NMSS funded a study and they found no connection" . I freely acknowledge there may be no connection, but this study does not show that at all.
Marie