News

THE first major UK scientific study into multiple sclerosis (MS) in children will begin this week marking a significant step forward in the understanding of the debilitating condition.

The paediatric MS study led by Birmingham Children’s Hospital will follow a group of children for five years and will cost around £400,000, jointly funded by Action Medical Research and the MS Society.

Awareness of MS in children - who have been known to show symptoms at just 13 months old - is very low leading to delays in diagnosis and poor treatment and care.

It is hoped that the study will give scientists an insight into how MS progresses from an early age, and increase understanding of the condition among doctors caring for children and young people.

Action Medical Research is funding half the costs of the study as part of its strategy to focus on child health, often a neglected and underfunded area of research.

Dr Tracy Swinfield, Director of Research at Action Medical Research said: “MS in children is poorly understood and we are delighted to be supporting this major scientific study into this difficult condition.”

Biomedical Research Manager for the MS Society, Dr Doug Brown, said: “If we can pin down what happens very early on in MS, this will give us vital clues as to how the condition develops in adulthood.

“MS isn’t considered to be a childhood condition but we need to beat this misconception because it makes life tougher for those young people who live with it day in, day out.”

MS is the most common disabling neurological condition in young people but there is an assumption it is an older person’s condition and that it cannot be diagnosed in children. This is one of the many myths the MS Society hopes to dispel during MS Week (27 April to 03 May).

Current knowledge and research into the number of children affected by the condition is severely lacking, but studies so far suggest that onset of MS occurs before the age of 16 in 0.4 to 10.5 per cent of cases, which could be anything up to 9,000 people in the UK.

The study, led by Dr Evangeline Wassmer, aims to find out how many children are affected by demyelination (a first MS-like illness) and MS in the UK, and to identify which children are more likely to develop MS after an initial demyelinating event.

Dr Wassmer said: “The study will create a group of paediatric MS cases that can be followed during the course of the project and beyond into adulthood, providing the basis for an extremely valuable long-term study.”