Campaign aims to raise awareness of multiple sclerosis

A campaign to publicize popular knowledge about multiple sclerosis (MS) was launched on Sunday to mark World MS Day, which fell on the same day.

Jointly supported by the Illness Challenge Foundation and Novartis Pharmaceuticals (China), the campaign called for narrowing the gap between MS patients and other people as well as for equal rights to education and work for patients.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a rare disease potentially disabling the brain and spinal cord (central nervous system) and can be mainly found among young women. Nearly half of all MS patients cannot take care of themselves and as many as 88.5 percent of them have lost opportunities for education or work.

Wang Yi'ou, general secretary of the Illness Challenge Foundation Beijing, said the campaign and foundation are determined to make MS patients more visible, heard and publicly known.

China is home to 30,000 MS patients, with most of them being women in their 20s to 40s.

Zhou Hongyu, professor of the neurology department of West China Hospital, Sichuan University, said the symptoms of MS vary and differ among individuals and the disease can be easily misdiagnosed. As many as nearly 50 percent of the patients experienced misdiagnosis and had been suffering for one year on average before receiving a correct diagnosis.

There's no cure for multiple sclerosis. However, treatments can help speed recovery from attacks, modify the course of the disease and manage symptoms.

The campaign gathered disease experts and representative patients to share resources on pathogenesis, early screening, treatment and management, care and recovery. The information can be found on the official MS family WeChat account.

Jiao Yujuan, professor of the neurology department at the China-Japan Friendship Hospital, said early DMT medication can help the patients live with the disease with more quality of life and urged patients to believe in medical science and better manage their lives.

Scan the QR code to check out photos and stories of MS patient representatives