The number of young adults diagnosed with multiple sclerosis seems to have increased significantly, according to figures published today.
Some 18% of new diagnoses from the disease are of people under the age of 30, the Multiple Sclerosis Society reported. Previous estimates have suggested the proportion is 12%.
The society says the increase is most probably linked to efforts to improve early diagnosis of the disease.
Some 130,000 people in the UK currently live with multiple sclerosis. It says the latest estimates have been made in cooperation with Public Health England.
The society’s assistant director of research Dr Emma Gray said: “Today, most people will first experience MS symptoms in their 20s and 30s, when they’re working on their career, or perhaps thinking about starting a family. The condition is unpredictable and different for everyone, and that can make it hard to plan for the future.
“There are now over a dozen licensed treatments for people with the relapsing form of MS, and some emerging for early active progressive MS – but there is nothing to stop you becoming more disabled as your condition advances. Thankfully, we have never been closer to stopping MS, and with the discoveries being made right now, we believe treatments that slow or stop disability progression are a very real prospect.”
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