Senator Schumer Launches Multiple Sclerosis Investigation in CNY Senator Schumer Launches Multiple Sclerosis Investigation in CNY

SYRACUSE, NY–Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced today at SUNY Upstate Medical University that he will be launching an investigation into the high rate of Multiple Sclerosis in Central New York. This comes a few weeks after Blue Cross Blue Shield unveiled a study noting that Central New York residents are twice as likely to get MS as compared to the national average.

The rate in Central New York is a third higher than the rate of 31 per 10,000 people that live with MS in the state of New York. Of the metropolitan regions in the Blue Cross Blue Shield study, Syracuse had the highest case of MS reported.

The study also shows that roughly 75 percent of those diagnosed with the disease are women and the average age for those diagnosed is 47 years old. It also details that the region of the United States that contains the most cases of MS is the northeast.

The Blue Cross Blue Shield study does not explain why the rate in Central New York is particularly high. Senator Schumer has asked that the CDC cooperate and collaborate with experts at SUNY Upstate to collect and analyze data that could educate Central New Yorkers on the disease.

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