This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

Dear all,

The NMMS after spending $35 million concluded that:

'These and other leaps forward have made 2004 a momentous year in the fight against MS'.

Do you agree? I assume other MS societies around the world have spent subtantial sums of money as well during 2004. Do they have any thing else to add to the knowledge gained this year?

It's good to see that there is a new drug available for RR MS, but funding for this would have mostly come from the drugs company. Unfortunately, there's still little for SP or PP MS sufferers.

What really has been learned in the year? Perhaps the most important is the realisation, in some parts, that MS is about neural degeneration and that the immune system response kicks in later causing more damage. At least there's now a recognition that neuro protection and nerve tissue repair are the way forward - probably the right ones after 50 years of trying. Speed is now required to get effective medication on the market to address these areas. To us with the disease, time = more disability / damage. I'm not sure that researchers always recognise this. Toomany researchers finish there papers with the same old line - 'this is an area that warrants further investigation / research'.

I think momentous is a little over-egging it. Momentous to me would suggest that the cause has been discovered and with a cause hopefully a cure / effective treatment. Momentous to me would mean people in wheelchairs walking again and people forced to leave work working again. I would say this has been another year where some progress has been made - but if anyone knows of other discoveries in the year - let's list them.

The results of the small scale trial of minocycline in Canada did look encouraging. A pity that no national society is willing to fund a larger trial.

Hopefully this time next year there will be something really momentous to celebrate! I'm not trying to put a downer on what has been achieved - but really to put it into context. When progress of the disease is halted and hopefully reversed - then we will really be on to something.

Have a good Christmas

Bromley

Well, Bromley, from my point of view, I hadn't quite got into a wheelchair, but now thanks to doxycycline and so on, prescribed in the first instance by my husband, a microbiologist, I won't have to. I am also now painting and therefore making a living again. The road is continuing its route upwards, which suits me fine, because I have always found climbing a steep hill easier than coming back down.

So, best wishes to everyone for the coming year,

Sarah