15th March
World MAP Day, a chance to share news of advances in the battle against an insidious
pathogen which increasing evidence points to as a cause of an Inflammatory Bowel
Disease (IBD) called Crohn’s.
Mycobacterium Avium subspecies Paratuberculosis (MAP) is known to cause Johne’s
disease in cattle. It is a hardy soil organism related to Tuberculosis which is extremely
difficult to eradicate and which pervades our food chain, in particular in beef and dairy
produce, including most worryingly infant formula. It is also rife in the environment
including our water supplies.
Despite the rapidly expanding body of evidence linking MAP with Crohn’s disease (and
possibly other ‘autoimmune’ diseases also), MAP is not currently recognised as a cause of
human disease. Hence the impetus to minimise human exposure to MAP and fund
research to develop new diagnostics and treatments is lacking; meanwhile the threat to
global public health continues unchecked. You can read more about MAP here .
Symptoms of Crohn’s disease include severe abdominal pain, weight loss, bloody
diarrhoea and chronic fatigue. Approximately 80% of patients will need surgery at some
point in their lifetime and it can be fatal. There is currently no cure and the lives of most are
blighted by multiple hospitalisations, surgeries and immuno-suppressive therapies, which
often have nasty side effects. As a result many people have difficulty holding down a job or
attending school.
2017 saw the fruition of decades of work by Professor Hermon-Taylor, whose therapeutic
vaccine against MAP – developed as a potential treatment for Crohn’s disease – was
injected into the arms of twelve healthy volunteers in a trial of the first ever human vaccine
against MAP. This was a Phase I trial to assess safety and immunogenicity and it has
worked well. Oxford’s prestigious Jenner Institute ran this initial trial and they have since completed a follow up trial with the second shot.
The date of the very first injection was 15th March 2017, now known as WORLD MAP
DAY.
On World MAP Day we would like you to arm yourself with information about MAP by
reading and sharing our website, helping to raise awareness or fundraising to support
MAP research. You can see many of the CMV Heroes’ Just Giving pages here.
If you or someone you love has Crohn’s, please take the time to talk to your specialist
about MAP; many doctors are now understanding its role in human disease much better
than they used to.
Even if you don’t have an IBD, we would ask you to share this information widely, as we
believe it is important for the public to know about MAP. We have over 37000 followers on
Facebook and we are also on Twitter and Instagram .