Multiple sclerosis clinic at AIIMS from next month

MS is a condition that can affect the brain and spinal cord, causing a wide range of potential symptoms, including problems with vision, arm or leg movement, sensation or balance.

It can lead to complications such as fatigue, loss of bladder control, cognitive changes and vision loss. Without treatment, permanent deterioration of the nerves causes communication between the brain and body to cease.

“So anytime that myelin sheath gets interrupted or it gets damaged at a place, that transfer of information does not happen,” said Dr Rohit Bhatia, department of neurology, AIIMS.

“Suppose it affects your optic nerve, what you’re seeing… gets interrupted so you perceive it as blindness,” he said.

At AIIMS, doctors are planning to provide treatment in the new clinic not just through prescriptions, but through comprehensive support systems where doctors can spend more time with patients. As MS diagnoses continue to rise, their main goal is to provide a space for understanding that patients need more innovative forms of care.

The cause of MS is unknown, though it is generally believed to be a combination of genetic, immunological and environmental factors. Because it often takes many years for someone to be diagnosed, it has so far been impossible to determine a specific cause or trigger.

Dr M V Padma Srivastava, chief of neurology at AIIMS, explained that the disease can strike suddenly over a few days through fatigue or imbalance, and then symptoms will go away, only to return in a few weeks. It is this slow up and down effect that leads to later diagnoses and harsher prognoses of the disease. “If you diagnose MS early and treat it early, you can have a functional outcome; you can be normal and live well with it,” she said.

With the disease harming young people, especially young women, in the prime of their lives, doctors said the hope is to use the clinic as a means to diagnose earlier, allowing for treatments to then work better.