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Extract from the article Tidsskr Nor Laegeforen. 2009 Sep 24;129(18):1902-4. doi: 10.4045/tidsskr.09.0850. [Miraculous cure in Lourdes?]. [Article in Norwegian] Norheim AJ. Nasjonalt forskningssenter innen komplementaer, og alternativ medisin (NAFKAM), Universitetet i Tromsø, 9037 Tromsø, Norway. arne.johan.norheim@hlink.no

PMID: 19844292

The undersigned has recently completed medical assessment of the patient stories that are reported to the registry for exceptional disease course ( RESF ) at the National Research Center in Complementary and Alternative Medicine ( NAFKAM ) at the University of Tromsø ( 1). During this work it has been linked contacts facing similar registry abroad , and recently was NAFKAM invited to visit Lourdes.

At the foot of the Pyrenees in southern France located several small towns , including the market town of Lourdes with about 20 000 inhabitants. The city is significantly different from all others by the millions of pilgrims annually visit this Catholic holy place. Besides being a center of Catholic spiritual renewal, Lourdes perhaps best known for what the Catholic Church describes as medical miracles..............High season for pilgrimage is from March to October, and it is estimated that about 200 million have visited the shrine. All year are daily processions place where patients pushed in a wheelchair or on a stretcher / sick bed through the church area to participate in the daily morning service, evening candlelight vigil and especially to visit the holy source. By the 150th anniversary last year it was at high mass is estimated to have been 45,000 pilgrims present.

.......Lourdes has a very distinctive medical association, Association Medicale Internationale de Lourdes ( AMIL ), which has its offices in the church area, but run independently by the Catholic ecclesiastical organization. The association is also called the Lourdes Medical Bureau and chaired by Dr Alessandro de Franciscis. The main task is to investigate the alleged exceptional disease course. All physicians who practice or reside in Lourdes can become members and associate membership is also possible for people with other health professional education.

........ In all, the Catholic Church until today recognized 67 medical miracles, of which the first seven took place in 1858. After accurate records and explanations witnessed by the police, the information from these seven rather sparse.

The next 17 years were no new miracles recognized but 1875 is 60 new miracles recorded, of which the latter was recognized in 1985. The last 60 miracles include patients aged 14-64 years, of whom 48 are women. Tuberculous disease is the most common diagnosis, and severe neurological disease such as multiple sclerosis and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is the second most frequently detected. In addition, it describes miraculous healing of another infectious disease and cancer. Among other diagnoses are various forms of heart disease, gastrointestinal disease, orthopedic problems and blindness.

This committee meets annually to review the submitted, patient stories. Committee decides by a 2/ 3 majority of the opinion that patient history can not be explained in the light of available knowledge, research and science. In 2008, the Committee meeting in Paris, where the rated five of the published stories as medical inexplicable. Over 150 years, more than 7,000 patient stories been considered, and nearly 2,000 of these have CMIL difficult to explain on the basis of available medical knowledge and practice.

Several criteria must be met before a patient history can be considered medically unexplained. The medical diagnosis must be consensual and irrefutable, the condition must be regarded as incurable, and healing must take place in connection with visit to Lourdes. Furthermore, the healing occur rapidly with immediate regression of symptoms. It must be complete without residual symptoms and / or sequelae, and the cure must be permanent and without recurrence for at least five years.