Martyn C N
MRC Environmental Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton, Southampton General Hospital, UK.
Ciba Found Symp. 1991;156:93-102; discussion 102-8. doi: 10.1002/9780470514047.ch7.
In England and Wales there is a strong geographical relation between current mortality from chronic bronchitis and emphysema in adults and infant mortality from bronchitis and pneumonia 50 years ago. Follow-up studies of infants and children show that certain pulmonary infections cause persisting abnormalities of lung function. This suggests that infection of an organ system during a period of rapid growth may have permanent deleterious effects. Long-term consequences of infection may also depend on age-related differences in the host response. The relationship between age of infection with hepatitis B virus and the likelihood of becoming a chronic HBsAg carrier is an example of this. Evidence that the common communicable diseases of childhood tend to have occurred late in cases of multiple sclerosis hints at similar mechanisms in this disease. The current patterns of motor neuron disease mirror the epidemiology of poliovirus infection 40 years ago both in geographical distribution and in changes over time. The same neuronal populations are affected in both these conditions; is there a causal link?
在英格兰和威尔士，目前成人慢性支气管炎和肺气肿导致的死亡率与50年前婴儿支气管炎和肺炎导致的死亡率之间存在着密切的地理关联。对婴幼儿的随访研究表明，某些肺部感染会导致肺功能持续异常。这表明，在快速生长时期，器官系统受到感染可能会产生永久性的有害影响。感染的长期后果也可能取决于宿主反应中与年龄相关的差异。感染乙肝病毒的年龄与成为慢性乙肝表面抗原携带者的可能性之间的关系就是一个例子。童年常见传染病往往在多发性硬化症病例中较晚出现，这一证据暗示了该疾病存在类似机制。运动神经元病目前的发病模式在地理分布和随时间变化方面都反映了40年前脊髓灰质炎病毒感染的流行病学情况。在这两种情况下，相同的神经元群体都会受到影响；它们之间存在因果联系吗？
