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Children Can Also Suffer From Multiple Sclerosis |
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Written by Dr. Jay Adlersberg, WABC-NY
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Sunday, 13 October 2002 |
The first signs of Multiple Sclerosis usually appear after the age of
20. But children can also suffer from this disease and the initial
symptoms can be very hard to diagnose. More children are now being
diagnosed with a potentially crippling disease that is more commonly
found in adult and that is MS or multiple sclerosis.
Most people are not aware that Multiple Sclerosis can also develop in a
child, in an adolescent, or teenager. MS is a disease , which affects
the brain and the nervous system. In adults it can be benign or
debilitating. However, in children, doctors don't exactly know.
Vanessa Javor is a beautiful teenager and she's has been battling Multiple Sclerosis for two years.
She was just fifteen, when one day, her left eye lost much of its sight.
Vanessa Javor, Patient: "I was terrified I thought I was going blind."
It was the first symptom of MS.
Vanessa's sight returned and she was taken to the eye doctor.
Several other doctors later, Vanessa got the diagnosis that stunned her and her family. It was MS.
Javor: "I thought MS didn't happen to younger people. I thought it only happened to older people."
Dr. Lauren Krupp, Stony Brooke Medical: "Many doctors look at textbooks
and it says MS occurs between 20 and 40, well, there are child as young
as 6,10 and 13 who can get this disease."
In adults, Multiple Sclerosis can be fairly benign or it can be debilitating.
In children, it can affect things like memory and attention.
Children could fail to thrive an unfortunate condition because there are treatments that can help them.
Dr. Krupp: "It is critical to make that diagnosis early and get
somebody under the treatment they need." Which is what Vanessa has
gotten.
Nightly injections keep her disease so well controlled that she traveled alone to Europe last summer.
Javor: "I felt great all over that nothing bothered me."
How many children suffer from ms is not well known but the youngest
child Dr. Krupp has seen was six years old. Stony Brooke Medical Center
has begun the first MS pediatric clinic where they treat children and
are researching how this disease develops in them.
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