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02. 03. 10. - 12:45

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02. 03. 10. - 12:45

New prophylactic for MS victims

New tablets with greater prophylactic effect than older remedies are available at pharmacies for multiple sclerosis victims, it was announced today (Tues).

Wolfgang Kristoferitsch, the head of the neurology ward at Vienna hospital SMZ-Ost, said in Saalfelden, Salzburg, that the 8,000 people with multiple sclerosis in Austria would be able to buy the new tablets at pharmacies.

The Austrian Pharmacy Chamber is holding its continuing scientific education week there. It will last until 5 March.

"Multiple sclerosis is the most frequent neurological illness among young adults. The illness is more or less progressive. It is treatable but not curable," he said.

The illness is more common in the northern than in the southern hemisphere, which has led experts to suspect that some sort of "Viking gene" causes it. Sunlight may also play a role since the disease is less common in Sicily, which the Normans controlled for some time, than in the USA and Canada. Virus infections and smoking are risk factors for the illness.

Doctors have used beta-interferon and glatiramer acetate for 15 years to prevent relapses during the course of the illness and they have reduced them by 30 per cent. Three years ago, a new antibody that blocks the entrance of activated immune cells into the circulatory system in the brain became available.

It provides protection against 70 per cent of severe relapses but can cause serious side effects in one of every 1,000 patients who use it. It is also available in tablet form.

Austrian Times

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