Multiple sclerosis in Malta in 1999
- Department of Neurology, Aalborg Hospital North, DK-9100 Aalborg, Denmark
- Correspondence to: Dr N Koch-Henriksen; niko{at}post3.tele.dk
Examination of the low incidence of multiple sclerosis in Malta
The paper by Dean et al1 (this issue pp 256–60) is not just one of countless papers on the prevalence of multiple sclerosis that have been published over the last 70 years. For several reasons it deserves special attention.
The numerous studies on this topic have been of varying importance and quality, and have been driven largely by the hope that the geographical pattern of disease occurrence might reveal the cause of multiple sclerosis. The pay off of these efforts, in terms of strong or definite clues to the aetiology, has been disappointing, and during the last two decades the focus on multiple sclerosis epidemiology …
