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Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis on the Rise |
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Written by Ability Magazine.com
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Wednesday, 11 December 2002 |
As part of her typical morning routine, Tammy Wallace gets her
four-year-old son, Kyle, ready for preschool. It was on one such
morning that Wallace noticed that her son could not sit up
independently.
Kyle has subsequently experienced symptoms not unlike multiple
sclerosis, a disease thought to afflict adults only. This perception
has caused its share of trouble. In trying to get help at a local
hospital, Wallace is told that there is no such thing as childhood MS.
Now a December USA Today report, written by Kathleen Fackelmann,
indicates that medical centers in the United States and Canada are
seeing more cases of children with symptoms similar to Kyle's. Rather
than playing in the sand, making new friends and developing
cognitively, these children are facing a disease that can cause
unpredictable bouts of paralysis, numbness and vision loss in addition
to a host of other symptoms.
Statistics estimate 20,000 undiagnosed childhood MS cases in the United
States. And medical evidence suggests the number of cases of pediatric
MS cases are rising—perhaps because more doctors are considering the
diagnosis when they see a child with telltale symptoms.
Traditionally, the USA Today article explains, neurologists have been
taught that MS will strike and will progress in adults, most often
women, between the ages of 20 and 40. However, one study, sponsored by
the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, suggests that MS can launch
its early symptoms in a child as young as six years of age. Some
researchers have reported they have seen the disease in even preschool
children.
Complicating the issue, treatments that have proven effective for
adults may not have been tested or approved for children. Furthermore,
there is no evidence showing these same drugs used in adult patients
can also aid in pediatric cases.
For physicians specializing in this area, the battle with pediatric MS
has taken on a sense of frantic urgency. Each attack can produce damage
to the brain. Researchers fear that repeated attacks can leave a child
with memory and learning problems.
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