Recent VA News Releases


To view and download VA news releases, please visit the following Internet
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Fact Sheet
December 2002
Multiple Sclerosis:
VA Benefits and Programs

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic disease of the brain and spinal cord.
The illness is thought to result from an autoimmune attack on the central
nervous system focused on myelin, which is a protective coating on nerves.


The symptoms of MS are highly variable, depending on the areas of the
central nervous system that have been affected.  Initial symptoms most often
include difficulty in walking, abnormal sensations such as numbness, and
visual problems due to optic neuritis, an inflammation of the optic nerve.
There is no cure for this disease, although drugs can help slow the course
of the disease or symptoms in some patients.

Approximately 350,000 Americans have MS, and about 200 new cases are
diagnosed each week, according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
VA medical centers treat at least 22,000 patients each year who have MS.
More than 11,193 veterans receive disability compensation for the illness.

Compensation and Health Care
To qualify for VA disability compensation for MS, a veteran must have a
current diagnosis of the disease and there must be evidence that it
developed in service or to a compensable degree within seven years following
separation from active duty.

To receive health care, veterans generally must be enrolled with VA.
Veterans with MS are eligible for VA health care and are exempt from
co-payment requirements for hospital and outpatient medical services if they
are receiving compensation for any service-connected disability, receiving
care for a service-connected disability or if their income is at or below
the congressionally established income limits.

These veterans may be subject to co-payments for medication.  Exempted from
medication co-payments are veterans whose service-connected conditions are
50 percent or greater, whose medication is for the service-condition or
whose income is at or below the pension threshold.

All veterans are eligible to enroll for VA health care.  Veterans can obtain
information on enrollment by calling 1-877-222-8387.

New Centers
To better address the needs of veterans with MS, VA announced in December
2002 creation of two centers specializing in Multiple Sclerosis.  VA is
committing more than $8 million for the centers over the next four years.

The centers are called Multiple Sclerosis Centers of Excellence.  One will
be established at the VA medical center in Baltimore.  The second will be
run jointly by medical centers in Seattle and Portland.

Each of the VAMCs has a close relationship with affiliated schools of
medicine that has resulted in strong, coordinated efforts in MS diagnosis,
treatment and research.

To deliver expert consultation advice and care in the diagnosis and
management of MS for veterans, a system of satellite clinics working in a
"hub and spokes" arrangement with the new centers will be implemented.  The
centers will be supplemented by VA's telemedicine network that will further
the reach to veterans no matter their locations.

In addition to developing education and training programs for patients,
families, students and health care professionals, the centers will conduct
research concentrating on specific problems of MS.  Research will include
basic biomedical, clinical, rehabilitation and health services studies.

Research Initiatives
Recent research advances by VA investigators in Seattle and Portland include
the development of a TCR peptide vaccination for MS and the NIH funded trial
of interferon-beta-1a for relapsing MS that ultimately led to the FDA
licensing of Avonex.

Research investigators in Seattle and Portland continue to work with the MS
Research and Training Center at the University of Washington, the only
center in the country funded by the National Institute of Disability and
Rehabilitation Research to conduct rehabilitation research on MS.

The MS center at the Baltimore VAMC has played a major role in the
development of new disease modifying treatments for MS.  The center
participated in trials of interferons and glatiramer acetate which are now
approved treatments for MS.

The Baltimore center has been in the forefront in the use of potassium
channel blockers as symptomatic therapies for MS.  In the application of new
technologies to rehabilitation, the center has been a pioneer developing a
program that is applying advances in gait training and maintenance therapy
to MS patients.


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