Epidemiology of multiple sclerosis in West bank of Palestine

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most common demyelinating disease of the central nervous system, and the major neurologic cause of disability in young adults. Its incidence and prevalence vary significantly between different ethnic groups and geographical regions. It is thought that MS is more frequent as we go further from the equator. In Palestine, there is yet no published data concerning its incidence and prevalence. So, in this article, we aim to study the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of MS in the West Bank of Palestine.Methods: A retrospective observational study was conducted from year 2010 to 2019 among MS patients in West Bank. Demographic and clinical records of concerned patients were collected from the database of the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Age, sex, onset of symptoms, first symptom, year of diagnosis, family history, and smoking were noted. The crude 2019 prevalence and incidence rate were calculated.Results: We identified 1652 MS patients with 1074 (65.01%) females and 578 (34.99%) males. In 2010, the crude incidence rate was 1.96 cases per 100,000. Peaked in 2017 to 6.08, and then dropped unexpectedly in 2018 to 2.91 before it re-rose again to 3.54 in 2019. The incidence rates among females were higher than in males from 2010 to 2019. 802 and 730 patients were diagnosed at age groups (below 30) year and (30-45) year respectively, which comprises 92.74% of all patients. Males were slightly more affected at a later age group (30-45), whereas females were more affected at age group below 30. The most common symptom at disease onset was motor presentation (16.04%) followed by blurring of vision (15.74%).Conclusion: This is the first epidemiological study regarding MS disease in the West Bank of Palestine. Our results showed that crude incidence rate is increasing from 2010 to 2017. This is in part due to increasing awareness of the disease as well as the availability of diagnostic tools. Further researches will be necessary to closely monitor this increasing trend of the disease amongst Palestinian population in the coming future. Clinical features of the disease were similar to those described in the literature.