This analysis from ‘The Free Times’ in 2000 by Lisa Chamberlain is sobering and is included here to provide some background to the fight to get MAP’s association with Crohn’s to be taken seriously.
“Barry Marshall suggested that Helicobacter caused ulcers, and he was ridiculed,” says Hermon-Taylor. “And this was a bug that you could see by looking down the microscope, grow in a simple culture system in the lab, test for immunologically pretty simply, and ordinary tablets readily available to doctors could make it go away. And it still took eight years for the penny to drop.
“Now we’ve got a bug that you can’t see, can’t grow, hides under the immunological radar, is a bastard to kill, and the problem it’s causing is far, far greater. If Rod Chiodini and I are wrong, the magnitude of the problem will only be the economic losses of farm animals, which is costing the U.S. somewhere between $1.5 and $2 billion a year. If Rod Chiodini and I are right, then, oh dear, oh dear. We have a big problem. It’s going to take a lot to put it right.”