- Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is the most common disabling neurological disease of young adults in the UK.
- Over 100,000 people in the UK have MS and it effects over 2,000,000 more.
- Approximately 120 people per 100,000 in England have the disease
- It is not considered a terminal illness and it is not contagious.
- Most people are diagnosed with MS in their 20s and 30s affecting more women than men.
- Multiple sclerosis is not inherited, but family members do have a slightly higher risk of developing MS.
- Although we can not predict exactly how MS will affect each person many people with MS live as long as anyone else.
- In the Bristol and Avon region, the population of patients with Multiple Sclerosis is in the order of over 2,000
- In the Bristol and Avon area alone, over 100 new cases of Multiple Sclerosis will develop each year
- Of these, over 90 are likely to present with a relapsing-remitting course, but approximately 10 will exhibit a course of steady progression of disability from the onset (Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis)
