MSSI brought experts in the field, government officials and MS patients on a single platform on World Multiple Sclerosis Day
Multiple Sclerosis Society of India (MSSI) commemorated ‘World Multiple Sclerosis Day’ in the Capital and on this occasion MSSI brought experts in the field, government officials and MS patients on a single platform.
Present on the occasion K Vikram Simha Rao, Director, Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India said, “There is a dire need of representation of disable people at the government level so that more disabilities can be included in the disability act and more schemes can be introduced and benefits can be passed on to the disable people. Government is planning to introduce a centralize data management system which would help in keeping a track on the population of disable people, type of disability and work effectively to provide facilities to the beneficiaries and the authorities will be able to access this centralise data from anywhere.”
Rao also informed that “Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities has extended its proposal of including Multiple Sclerosis along with 20 other disabilities in the Ayushman Bharat – a National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS) so that MS patient can avail the central government’s health scheme, this would help a MS patient to be self-reliant to an extent.”
Through this conference MSSI tried to throw light on the actual picture of MS prevalence in India and this could serve as harbinger for upcoming research. At the same time it would definitely aid in working out future strategies for MS management in the country.
There has been a considerable shift in MS prevalence in India and this has really changed the notion of considering India as a low risk zone for MS. In India, remarkable upsurge is needed in carrying out large scale population-based epidemiological studies to get an idea about the true incidence and prevalence rates of MS viz a viz disease burden.
Most people with MS are diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 50, with at least two to three times more women than men being diagnosed with the disease. In India MS is targeting children’s as well starting from the age of 16 years. As per the last study conducted in India was 2003-04 there were 200,000 reported patients were affected with MS. Post that no study was conducted/done on this and it is believed that this figure must have gone up by two to four folds which could be 10 per cent of world’s total Multiple Sclerosis patients.