Familial Mediterranean Fever - History

History

A New York allergist, Dr Sheppard Siegal, first described the attacks of peritonitis in 1945; he termed this "benign paroxysmal peritonitis", as the disease course was essentially benign. Dr Hobart Reimann, working in the American University in Beirut, described a more complete picture which he termed "periodic disease".

In 1972, colchicine was discovered to prevent attacks.

The link to the MEFV gene was discovered in 1997 by two different groups, each working independently - the French FMF Consortium, and the International FMF Consortium.

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