Medicine: MS & Spirochete

Multiple sclerosis victims (about 250,000 in the U.S.) were anxiously wondering about a possible clue to their mysterious disease, which is marked by near-total loss of muscle control. (It happens when the myelin sheath, a fatty insulation around nerve pathways, degenerates for unknown reasons, thus short-circuiting nerve signals.) Philadelphia Bacteriologist Rose Ichelson, 59, reported success in cultivating an obscure microbe, Spirochaeta myelophthora, which she has found in the spinal fluid of MS victims. Inference: multiple sclerosis is caused by the spirochete, and early attack on it should lead to cure or alleviation....

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