City heads MS study.

Byline: Alison Dayani

THE first major scientific study into multiple sclerosis in children in the UK has begun at Birmingham Children's Hospital to attempt to understand the debilitating condition.

Researching doctors have been awarded a pounds 400,000 grant by Action Medical Research and the MS Society, one of the largest it has ever given out.

The study will follow a group of children for five years to give more insight into how MS progresses from an early age, and increase understanding of the condition among doctors caring for children and young people.

Dr Doug Brown, biomedical research manager for the MS Society, said: "If we can pin down what happens very early on in MS, this will give us vital clues as to how the condition develops in adulthood.

"MS isn't considered to be a childhood condition but we need to beat this misconception because it makes life tougher for those young people who live with it day in, day out." Current research into the number of children affected by MS is poor, but suggests that the onset of the condition occurs before the age of 16 in 0.4 to 10.5 per cent of cases, which could be anything up to 9,000 people in the UK.

Dr Evangeline Wassmer is leading the study in Birmingham with other centres in Oxford, Bristol, Nottingham and London taking part..