Sharp rise seen in number of young Israelis suffering from Hodgkin's

[ema-adama]

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1114913.html

Researchers are not sure how to explain the increases, although it is suggested that it might be caused by exposure at a late age to childhood diseases such as measles, German measles, mumps and whooping cough. It has also been suggested that the disease is caused by the Epstein-Barr virus, which causes mononucleosis among other illnesses, although there are no records on the incidence of this disease in Israel.

I did not know where to post this.

My question is if anyone knows more about delayed age of contracting a childhood disease and the increased chance of being diagnosed with Hodgkin's?

[Nirvana]

Funny I was just thinking about this today! I was wondering why is it that most childhood illnesses like CP can have serious complications if contracted as an adult.

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

There are some lines of thought which state that episodic fevers early in childhood, upregulate the immune system, and cause gene expression to change, so that cancer is less likely.

A clue to this is the fact that in Africa, children who have had "real" measles, have a much higher overall rate of survival than those who have had pseudo measles from the vaccine. And children who haven't had either the disease or the vaccine, have the lowest survival rate in comparison to the other two groups.

That is why Peter Aaby, speculated in one paper, that even if measles were wiped out, that MMR would still need to be used to confer the smaller increase in overall survival that provoking the immune system creates. So even there, they ended up admitting that infections can have a purpose.

[ema-adama]

Thanks MT - this only gets more bizarre for me. I have the half baked plan to take DS to Africa to get measles if he hasn't had it by about 9. I am sure we will find it in SA, even if we aren't living there. Do you have any studies that I can have a look at? I was chuckling as I thought of disease tourism, where one day the developed world will rely on the developing world to get access to the diseases that are found to actually be beneficial in the long term.

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

:D PMID 12443670

[ema-adama]

That number isn't bringing anything up. Can you help me out with a search term in pubmed?

[ema-adama]

OK, I think I have it here?
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6TD4-46RCS36-1&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=1e1f7ef71bd34b5bc9673e144776dd8d

Low mortality after mild measles infection compared to uninfected children in rural west Africa

Thanks for linking me in with that

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12443670

Yup