Coincidence or Contagious?

[Celie]

Hi all.

I understand that MC is not supposed to be contagious, but I came down with LC in May (diagnosed in July) and my stepmother (of 4 years) was diagnosed with MC this week. Interestingly, her first husband had MC for the last three years of his life and she has had digestive trouble ever since.

Is it just coincidence? Is it contagious? Is there a common trigger? I will be interested in your thoughts.

Celie

[ant]

Well,

IMHO if a virus/viruses/micro-bacterium/micro-bacteria is/are the trigger..... and 30%+ of the population have susceptible genes.......it could be contagious to high % of people. If this is true, then the question would be how is/are the virus/viruses/micro-bacterium/ micro-bacteria transmitted. IMHO it is more likely to be transmitted in the food chain than person to person...perhaps by drinking infected milk??

Best, Ant

[Celie]

This just makes me wonder what we got in to? Perhaps it is just a strange coincidence.

Celie

[tex]

Celie,

Yes, some of us believe that MC, (and other IBDs), may be due to an undiscovered relative of mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis, (MAP), bacteria. MAP causes Johne's disease in cattle, (and the bacteria may be transmitted in milk, since pasteurization does not kill them). Johne's disease causes IBD symptoms very similar to Crohn's disease in humans.

You might be interested in these old discussions. As you can see from Polly's third post in the first thread, even Dr. Fine believes that it might possibly be infectious:

http://www.perskyfarms.com/phpBB2/viewt ... contagious

http://www.perskyfarms.com/phpBB2/viewt ... contagious

Here's the most recent discussion:

http://www.perskyfarms.com/phpBB2/viewt ... hlight=map

There are some additional comments about MAP concerning the operative and pathology reports from my surgery in February of this year, in this thread:

http://www.perskyfarms.com/phpBB2/viewt ... hlight=map

Tex

[Celie]

Thank you Tex. I had found one of the threads, but not the other two. Your institutional memory is very helpful.

[Celie]

When I went for my biopsy today, I asked my GI doc about this "strange coincidence" of my stepmother and I both getting MC within a couple of months of each other. She said she wished she knew. She said they had experienced another unusual set of cases a few years ago in their own office. She said two of their nurses developed terrible diarrhea that was ultimately diagnosed as MC within days of each other. They tested them every way from Sunday and could not figure out the connection. They did eat out together for lunch on a regular basis and they theorized that they may have come in contact with the same environmental factor. She told me that the experience made her office really study MC. But, even with the study she expressed frustration about how much they still don't know much about MC. It was an interesting discussion.

It does explain the good knowledge base in the clinic...

[tex]

Celie,

That's really interesting about the two nurses in the same office getting MC so close together. The odds against that happening by coincidence are astronomical. Very interesting information.

Thanks for sharing,
Tex