Is measles infection associated with Crohn's disease?

BMJ 1998;316:166 (17 January)

Editorials

Is measles infection associated with Crohn's disease?

The current evidence does not prove a causal link

The cause of Crohn's disease is likely to be multifactorial,and great interest was generated by two Swedish studies suggestinga high risk of Crohn's disease in those exposed to measles inutero.¹ ² The report in this week's issue from Nielsen et al(p 196),³ however, is not alone in suggesting that there isno increased risk.

The two Swedish papers studied largely the same group of patients.Both studies were the result of two index cases of Crohn's diseasenoted to have been exposed to measles in utero (accounting fortwo out of four cases in the second study). The first report,in 1994, compared the expected and observed month of birth inpatients with Crohn's disease born in 1945-54 in relation tothe peak months of measles epidemics. The standardised incidenceratio was 1.46 (95% confidence interval 0.83 to 2.21) for futuredevelopment of Crohn's disease for births . . . [Full text of this article]

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Relevant Article

Measles, measles vaccination, and Crohn's disease: Elizabeth Miller, Pauline Waight, R G Pebody, M Paunio, P Ruutu, Ross Lawrenson, and Richard Farmer
BMJ 1998 316: 1745. [Extract] [Full Text]

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Iizuka, M, Chiba, M, Yukawa, M, Nakagomi, T, Fukushima, T, Watanabe, S, Nakagomi, O (2000). Immunohistochemical analysis of the distribution of measles related antigen in the intestinal mucosa in inflammatory bowel disease. Gut 46: 163-169 [Abstract] [Full text]
Miller, E., Waight, P., Pebody, R G, Paunio, M, Ruutu, P, Lawrenson, R., Farmer, R. (1998). Measles, measles vaccination, and Crohn's disease. BMJ 316: 1745-1745 [Full text]