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The Multiple Sclerosis International Federation (MSIF) supported International Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis Study Group (IPMSSG) is developing three major international projects to optimize worldwide care, education and research in paediatric (childhood) MS.
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Historically multiple sclerosis (MS) has been viewed as an adult-onset disease and as a result the majority of MS research, services and support programmes have targeted adults. Since the 1980s, however, more than 400 cases of MS in children (under 18 years of age) have been recorded worldwide. Initial symptoms have been seen as early as 13 months old, with diagnosis as young as two years of age. Largely because of new technology, the numbers of children and adolescents diagnosed with MS are steadily growing. Because neurologists so rarely encounter childhood MS, diagnosis may be delayed or more difficult than for adult-onset disease and because treatments have not been systematically studied, tested or approved for children, childhood MS is often treated in the same way as adult MS. The International Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis Study Group (IPMSSG) is a global network of adult and paediatric neurologists, basic scientists, clinicians, representatives of MS societies, and other relevant professional organizations whose unifying objective is to optimize worldwide care, education and research in paediatric MS and other acquired inflammatory demyelinating disorders of the central nervous system (CNS).