Multiple sclerosis is no longer untreatable, asserted Dr Richard A. Rudick. While delivering the T.S. Srinivasan endowment oration in the city on Saturday, the Director of Mellen Centre for multiple sclerosis, neurological institute, Cleveland clinic in the US, revealed that with today’s medical advances about 30 to 50 per cent of patients afflicted with MS can be treated.
MS is one of the most debilitating of neurological disabilities that has a hugely negative impact on a patient’s quality of life. The disease that affects about one in 1,000 people in the US may be affecting almost as many Indians, which means the numbers are huge here.
According to Dr Rudick, MS in India remains largely under-recognised and under-diagnosed, but that may change soon.
In his speech titled, ‘Meeting the Challenge of Multiple Sclerosis - The Road Ahead’, Dr Rudick, said “MS, an auto-immune disease that affects the brain and the spinal cord (central nervous system), is a neurological disorder on the rise. We’ve made more progress in the last 15 years in MS than we did in the last 200 years in the history of this condition.”
Dr Rudick said, “The disease can change roles: a mother, for instance, affected by MS, can struggle to look after her children. It can alter relationships, jobs. Cases of divorce and unemployment are high, courtesy MS.”
He said, “As we speak, five new drugs are in their last stages of being tested. Being Stage 3, these drugs will help MS achieve a ‘disease-free’ status. It is being designed in a way that it will individualise the treatment so the patient is completely free of MS.”
The oration and accompanying neurological conclave are sponsored by the TS Srinivasan Trust of the TVS Group and organized by the TS Srinivasan Institute in VHS Hospital.
