Przegl Epidemiol 2001;55(3):331-41
The possibility of a focus of the
province of Szczecin (Northwestern part of Poland) was first noticed in
our survey covering the period of 1960-86.
Starting from 1986 the incidence
of MS in this region was closely followed.
Seven communes with an area of 1202
km2 and 45,231 inhabitants, had 50 MS patients on Dec. 31st, 1995 and a
prevalence rate of 110,54/100,000.
This is twice the prevalence more
than in surrounding area (52,89/100,000).
New cases appeared irregularly, with
four peaks in 1960, 1967-8, 1976-7 and 1981-2.
The age at onset, duration of disease,
life expectancy and natural history of the disease in the focus and rest
of Szczecin region were similar.
We conclude, that clustering seems
to be due to the influence of environmental factors, such as peat soil,
coniferous forest, quality of drinking water and nearby industrial plants.
PMID: 11761841 [PubMed - in process]
Potemkowski A.