In Italy there are more than 122 thousand people suffering from multiple sclerosis. Although the disease can begin at any age, young people between the ages of 20 and 40 are most affected and in most cases it is women. Compared to men, the latter in fact get twice as sick. This was revealed by the data of the Aism Barometer (Italian Multiple Sclerosis Association) which for 50 years has been fighting at the forefront for research and for the rights of patients through various initiatives such as National Multiple Sclerosis Week, scheduled from May 30th to June 6th.
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#MSconnections is the hashtag of the World Day, the highlight of the week, which will be held on May 30 in over 70 countries around the world. The theme is “I connect, we connect” , slogan of this day in which the whole world is connected – ready to leave after the emergency – to overcome the barriers and obstacles that risk isolating people with multiple sclerosis and limiting their full social inclusion. With the World MS day also returns “Welcome back Gardenia”In the Italian squares for fundraising to be donated to research. Not only. This year a global choir was organized in live streaming at 2 pm again on May 30 on the notes of “Beautiful Day“of U2. For Italy, two girls from the Aism movement, Marina and Rachele, participate. The tenor’s sacred music concert will be streamed on AISM’s social channels Marco Voleri, person with MS, with the participation of Beatrice Venezi.
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by Letizia Gabaglio
And give
New data from the 2021 Multiple Sclerosis Barometer will be presented e it will be an opportunity to launch an appeal for the construction of the 2025 Agenda. Sfold Mario Alberto Battaglia, president of the Italian Multiple Sclerosis Foundation (Fism). “At the end of a path carried out with the institutions from 2015 to 2020, the appeal we now make to all stakeholders is to work together to build a map of the priorities of people with multiple sclerosis towards 2025, or a path to change the life of these patients and their families “. This path must be characterized by three key words, Battaglia specifies: “the first is co-responsibility, because problems can only be faced together; the second is innovation, in research as well as in inclusion, because there is no going back after the pandemic. ; the third key word is sustainability “.
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On 31 May these requests will be brought to the attention of the highest institutions and the four ministers who have been called to participate in the event live on the web: the Minister of Health Roberto Speranza, the Minister for Disabilities Erika Stefani, the minister of university and research Maria Cristina Messa, the Minister of Labor and Social Policy Andrea Orlando.
During the pandemic, 6,500 calls to the toll-free number: five times more than in 2019
However, Aism’s work did not stop during the pandemic. Only in the first phase of the health emergency in 2020, the Italian Multiple Sclerosis Association has enhanced local assistance and the toll-free number, managing over 6,500 support requests, equal to five times those of the previous year. A daily work, the results of which will be presented during the week. Not only. In fact, a data collection program on Covid-19 and multiple sclerosis cases was launched with the Italian Society of Neurology (Sin), which allowed to feed the MuSC-19 platform, to which 78 specialized centers contributed to providing data, in collaboration with the University of Genoa. The results obtained, published in the authoritative journal Lancet Neurology, have made it possible to obtain epidemiological information useful for public health choices. Surveys have also been activated to find out the impact of the epidemic on people with multiple sclerosis with over 5,000 responses.
Multiple sclerosis, in 30% of cases the disease is not under control
by Letizia Gabaglio
The illness
Multiple sclerosis, a serious disease of the central nervous system, is a leading cause of disability in young people. Chronic, unpredictable and often progressively disabling, it affects one person every 3 hours, is mostly diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 40. There are 2.5 million people with MS worldwide, 700,000 in Europe and 122,000 in Italy alone. Multiple sclerosis has a strong social impact: 5 billion euros is the average annual cost of the disease. It is a social emergency.
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