Neomatica: “A team of an Australian doctor and British researchers analyzed the medical records of over 5 million individuals and discovered that either HIV or anti-HIV drugs have a protective effect against multiple sclerosis (MS).  AIDS patients or people with HIV receiving treatment have a 60% less likely chance of receiving a diagnosis of MS.  Deeper analysis found that those on a treatment regimen the longest, for 5 years or more, had an 80% reduced chance of developing MS.  The discovery is remarkable for the fact that no curative or preventative treatments for MS exist and this unexpected insight may be one of the most interesting avenues. The researchers write

“If subsequent studies demonstrate there is a causal protective effect of HIV (and/or its treatment), and if the magnitude of it proves to be similar…this would be the largest protective effect of any factor yet observed in relation to the development of MS,”

The primary author of the study, Dr. Julian Gold of Prince of Wales Hospital in Australia, first observed casually that even though he treats patients with HIV and knows people with MS, he had never met a person with both.  He searched through medical literature, and found 700,000 studies on HIV/AIDS and 300,000 studies on MS.  Out of the approximately 1,000,000 studies, there was no reference to a patient who had both.  Eventually, he did find one person whose symptoms of MS began to diminish when he began treatment for HIV… The research was published on Aug 4, 2014 in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry doi:10.1136/jnnp-2014-307932  [Open Access – full text available to all]