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Interesting that this study hypothtesized about childhood respiratory ailments and their relationship to PD. When I was about 6-7 years old I had repeated bouts of croup. On one occasion I was hospitalized and placed in a plastic oxygen tent for a couple days. The results of a survey regarding this would be interesting. Greg 47/35/35 -----Original Message----- >Infection in childhood and neurological diseases in adult life. > >Martyn CN >MRC Environmental Epidemiology Unit, Southampton General Hospital, UK. > >Other chapters in this issue discuss the evidence that implicates infection >during infancy and childhood in the etiology of respiratory disease. Here I >argue that experience of infection in early life may also be involved in the >aetiology of some diseases of the adult nervous system. The descriptive >epidemiology of three neurological diseases is compatible with the >hypothesis that they are delayed consequences of childhood infection. It is >not difficult to imagine that the effects of an infection which results in >loss of cells from an organ system, like the central nervous system, whose >cell populations have lost the capacity to replace themselves by mitotic >division could remain hidden until unmasked by ageing. Such a mechanism may >be important in the aetiology of motor neuron disease and Parkinson's >disease. Age-related differences in host response, which may be partly >related to a maturing immune system, are known to influence both short- and >long-term outcome for several infections. Perhaps the immune response to >infection with Epstein-Barr virus, or another common micro-organism with >similar epidemiology, in adolescence or early adult life is sometimes >directed at antigens that are also present in the central nervous system. At >present, the evidence that supports these hypotheses is largely >circumstantial. But it may be possible to devise ways of testing them both >epidemiologically and in the laboratory. >