Annual incidence, prevalence, and mortality of multiple sclerosis in white South-African-born and in white immigrants to South Africa.

Abstract

On settling in South Africa in 1947 I learned that multiple sclerosis (M.S.), or disseminated sclerosis as it was usually called, was thought to be uncommon among South Africans. I therefore proceeded with a study of all white patients diag- nosed as having this disease at the major South African hospitals and found that 14 out of 27 in whom the diagnosis could be accepted as probable in 1948 were immigrants from Europe, though immigrants were only 10% of the population at risk. Among the South-African born White population the disease was apparently uncommon.