[ZULU]

A. The source you are citing is an American Journal, and the author of this piece specifically points out that American Medical Authorities do not accept this thesis.
What he is stating is very true - most scientific communities are extremely conservative and are unwilling to reject current theories unless exposed to overwhelming laboratory evidence that those theories are flawed.

B. Their is no conflict between this new theory and the past history of pathogens. Pathogens mutate and their mutation rates far exceed that of any higher organisms. Most of the pathogens that been historical epidemiological problems arose from continual human expose to some other animal species in which that pathogen originated - small pox from fouls, bubonic plague from rodents, etc.

The fact that Crohn's is increasing in frequency ni the western world, along with irritable bowel syndrome would point to some factor not found in other world populations and this new theory is certainly wirth exploring.

Anyone who is afflcited with either of these disorders or knows a friend or relative who is, is aware of the serious and debilitation consequnces of it.

Crohns not only is disabling - its a killer. It can cause damage to the liver and other vital digestive oragns and lives the victim to a long and painful death.

The individual who was making a joke of this vis-a-vis Kerry's spouse was totally out of line. Crohn's is about as funny as cancer.

[aruanan]

A. The source you are citing is an American Journal, and the author of this piece specifically points out that American Medical Authorities do not accept this thesis.

You've got a lot to learn about the way scientific papers are published. If you go to PubMed and look using "Crohn's" disease and "Mycobacterium paratuberculosis," you'll see that people have been researching this for a long time, with quite varied results. These results are indicative of what I said in my post above: there is a lot more going on in this disease than something so simplistic as a "germ." Read through the abstract posted above. This time actually read it instead of dismissing it as an "American Journal". Note that the disease itself makes the intestinal tissue much more susceptible to bacterial infection. The "link" the article at the top of this threat touts is more than likely to be a consequence of the disease rather than its cause.