Even as medicine has developed more effective treatments for multiple sclerosis, a twelve-year study of over 42,000 American deaths reveals that MS mortality rates have continued to climb — and that the burden of dying falls with particular cruelty on Black patients, who succumb nearly a decade earlier than their white counterparts. The disease itself is not the only force at work; unmanaged cardiovascular conditions, delayed diagnoses, and the accumulated weight of systemic inequity appear to be shaping who lives and who dies. This is a story not merely about a neurological illness, but about
MS Death Rates Rise Despite Treatment Advances, With Stark Racial Disparities
Black patients with MS die significantly younger than white patients, with mortality peaking 10 years earlier; racial and ethnic minorities experience up to 10-year delays in MS diagnosis.