- Although there is no official registry, it is estimated that at least 20,000 Mexicans have multiple sclerosis.
- It is listed as the leading cause of non-traumatic neurological disability in young adults.
- About 66% of all cases occur in women.
The main objective of health events is to give visibility to certain diseases. Some like the multiple sclerosis are unknown by the majority of the population because they are not aware of their main symptoms. The direct consequence is that many of the patients do not receive an accurate diagnosis until several years after the onset of the discomfort.
In this case, Irene Treviño Frenk, who is an academic at the UNAM School of Medicine, points out that it is not a highly frequent disease. Although one of the problems is that it is listed as the leading cause of non-traumatic neurological disability in young adults.
In our country there are no statistics on how many people suffer from it, but the Ministry of Health (SSa) estimates that they are at least 20 thousand people, from 20 to 40 years of age, with this condition. Of the patients, about two thirds are women. While almost five percent are teenagers or children over the age of eight.
He also said that as care and treatment improve, people with this condition may be living longer. With this in mind, patients aged 50 and over can live up to three decades with the disease and its implications.
The expert specifies that the causes of disability in individuals between 20 and 40 years of age are, mainly, the consequences of car accidents derived from alcohol consumption, above all; and then multiple sclerosis.
“There are first world countries with successful car accident prevention campaigns and strict controls on the consumption of alcoholic beverages, where it is the leading cause of disability in adults of working age. It has an economic impact for families, society and companies. For this reason, there is a great need to prevent this group from developing disability, comments the clinical researcher”.
Why is multiple sclerosis generated?
In nations such as Spain, Norway, Sweden or Finland, where there is an integrated health system, it has been seen that the incidence of the disease increases, the university specialist points out and argues:
“One of the key risk factors for developing multiple sclerosis is Caucasian genetics. That is, families who come from Eastern Europe and the northern United States. In Mexico we have a very high miscegenation, and the prevalence of multiple sclerosis is higher than in other Latin American countries.
For several years it has been observed that vitamin D deficiency is a factor that, when combined with other risk factors, can trigger cases of multiple sclerosis. Even babies who in utero lived through months of little Sun are at higher risk of developing the disease. To this is added the urban lifestyle, factors such as pollution, increased salt consumption, exposure to cigarette smoke, obesity in childhood or adolescence, and viral infections. For this reason, it is considered multifactorial.
World Multiple Sclerosis Day
On the occasion of World Multiple Sclerosis Daywhich is celebrated on May 30, the neurologist specifies that it is a health problem of the nervous system that affects the brain and spinal cord, damaging the material that protects nerve cells.
The celebration arose in 2009 thanks to the International Federation of Multiple Sclerosis, which declared the date to raise awareness about the problem that affects millions of people on the planet. This year the general theme to spread is “connections”, to establish links with the community and the theme.
“It is not an infection, but it is a disease in which our own immune system is activated and damages the central nervous system due to something that the risk factors generated, including the presence of viruses.”
Main symptoms of multiple sclerosis
The also president of the Mexican Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis adds that the condition causes problems, presents various symptoms and alterations; Among the most common are: numbness of a limb or half of the body, which is sometimes confused with issues of anxiety or anguish; 90 percent have fatigue, which can be confused with depression, anxiety, or lack of exercise.
Others that are easy to detect are optic neuritis, which involves inflammation of the optic nerve, which decreases vision and color observation, blurs vision and can lead to loss of sight; also the numbness of arms, legs or half of the body, details Treviño Frenk.
Although the treatments are expensive and complex, it has been shown worldwide that it is more expensive to allow the condition to evolve, because you can lose an economically productive person, who stops paying taxes, retires at an early age; that is, it is better to invest in timely treatment and care.