Multiple sclerosis (MS), a neurological disease occurring when the body immune cells mistakenly attack the thick sheath covering the nerve fibers of the brain and spinal cord, was once thought to be an adults-only disease. Now researchers in the USA and Canada report seeing more children who are diagnosed with the disease. Why is the number of pediatric MS patients rising? Is this an epidemic? Very likely the cases are being identified because more doctors are considering the diagnosis when they see a child suffering from MS symptoms, such as sudden loss of vision. MS affects approximately 350,000 American adults, and it is estimated that as many as 20,000 children in the USA have the disease but are undiagnosed.
However, even today doctors dont consider MS a possibility in very young children (the youngest in one recent study, four years old). This lack of knowledge about pediatric MS means that many children may not get a diagnosis right away; and even then, it may be difficult to find pediatric MS specialists to treat them. Dr. Brenda Banwell, a neurologist at the Hospital for Sick Children, in Toronto, reports that her team has treated 34 children with MS. The youngest was four, and nearly half were under age ten when they had their first attack. Dr. Lauren Krupp, of State University of New York-Stony Brook, and her colleagues have now completed a study of 21 children with MS. This is one of the first studies to focus on the disease in children.
How can these children be treated? The drugs that have "fueled a revolution" among adults with MS have not been tested in children; but doctors have no choice but to use the drugs, especially when faced with a young patient who has had multiple attacks in a short period. The hope is that such drugs, especially if started early, will hold off the worst consequences of the disease.
When a childhood diagnosis is made, the whole team--doctor, parents, and child--is faced with a number of unanswered questions. Will drugs used to treat adults work for children? How quickly will the disease progress? But now, at least, pediatric MS is recognized. With research in progress, perhaps the answers soon will come.
Source: USA Today, "Childhood MS: A Silent Epidemic?"
