Spatial Analysis of Global Prevalence of Multiple Sclerosis Suggests Need for an Updated Prevalence Scale

Table 4

Kurtzke’s versus proposed global MS prevalence scale.

(a) Kurtzke’s global MS prevalence scale

Classification	Prevalence rate (per 100,000)	Countries
High	30–80	Most of Europe, most of United States, Canada, New Zealand, Israel, Cyprus, and south-eastern Australia
Medium	5–25	Southern Europe, most of Australia, most of Russia from the Urals into Siberia as well as the Ukraine, South Africa, possibly much of the Caribbean region, and South America
Low	<5	Asia, most of Africa, and South America (Venezuela and Colombia)

(b) Proposed global MS prevalence scale

Classification	Prevalence rate (per 100,000)	Countries
Very high	170–350	Canada, Sweden (Varmland), Finland (Seinäjoki and Vaasa), Scotland, and most of Ireland
High	70–170	Most of United States, Norway, Sweden (Västerbotten), Denmark, Finland (Uusimaa), Iceland, England, Ireland (Wexford), Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy, Turkey, Slovenia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Luxembourg, and Netherlands
Medium	38–70	Southern United States, Russia, most Australia, New Zealand (south), Faroe Islands, Poland, Estonia, Spain, Greece, Hungary, Serbia and Montenegro, Bulgaria, Belarus, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Portugal, and Ukraine
Low	13–38	Australia (Queensland), New Zealand (north), Kazakhstan, Romania, India, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Martinique, Argentina, South Africa, Brazil, Bahrain, Barbados, Lebanon, Malta, Morocco, Slovakia, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and Uruguay
Very low	0–13	Japan, Mexico, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand, Kuwait, Panama, Colombia, Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Cameroon, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Guinea, Honduras, Iraq, Malawi, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Paraguay, Peru, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Benin, and Senegal