Germany: reliable data on MS incidence available from 2-year study:

The German population of multiple sclerosis sufferers is currently 120,000, with 2,500 new cases recorded every year. The economic costs are some euro500m ($585m) per year in direct hospital costs and a further euro3.5bn in social benefits and other costs. A study led by Dr Peter Flachenecker, of the university hospital of Wurzburg set out to log patients at five regional centres over a two-year period, ending in December 2003. Their documentation project covered some 3,400 patients during this period allowing them to calculate new incidence as being 3 per 100,000 of population (based on observations in Rostock and Wurzburg). Newly-diagnosed MS patients were on average 30 years old. The project also revealed that two-thirds of observed patients were female; a third had limited mobility; 7% were wheelchair-bound; 1.6% were bed-bound. The register has since grown to 10,000 cases, and neurologists hope the knowledge put into this developing database will help in the management and therapy of patients.