- - The Public Multiple Sclerosis has always been with the human race. The descriptions from physicians from as long ago as the Middle Ages can today be identified as symptoms of multiple sclerosis (Rolak). Once the scientific process took hold, MS was one of the first diseases described scientifically (Rolak). The father neurology, Jean-Martin Charcot, was the first to associate MS with the scars or "plaques" in the brain. Much of what can be learned of multiple sclerosis by observation was known by the end of the 19th century (Rolak). When a person was diagnosed with MS in the 1800Ős, they did not expect to live much past 5 years. With the advancement of technology and drug therapy, people with MS have a normal life span. "Health care professionals must promote a realistic sense of hope and control and not dwell on symptoms that are related to the chronic progressive form of MS" (Miller). Misinformation to the general public also effect those who may contract the disease later in life. Today MS is mostly recognized by society through generalizations from the chronic progressive perspective because of the disability it causes (Miller). Multiple sclerosis is not a problem limited only to the direct family. Multiple sclerosis affects approximately 1.1 million men, women, and children of all ages throughout the world. The data from the National Health Interview Survey indicates that of the approximately 350,000 Americans affected with multiple sclerosis, 75% of these people are in the 35-64 year age group; 73% are female; 95% are Caucasian; and 71% are no longer in the work force (Stufbergen). The total cost of patient care and lost wages for 1994 was estimated at $9.7 billion for the United States alone (Andersson).

December 9, 1998