Women are three times more likely than men to suffer from the disease that strikes roughly one in every 20,000 people in Hong Kong.

A man in his 40s, identified as Choi, is one of more than 300 sufferers in the SAR. He collapsed one day in 2000 while shopping and thought it was just a muscle injury or joint pain.

He had acupuncture and other Chinese medicinal treatments, but his condition deteriorated until he underwent magnetic resonance imaging, which confirmed MS. Now wheelchair-bound, he has partially lost his sight.

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On its website, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in the United States says multiple sclerosis is an unpredictable disease that affects the central nervous system. It ranges in intensity from relatively benign to devastating.

Some researchers believe MS is an autoimmune disease - one in which the body, through its immune system, launches a defensive attack against its own tissues.

Causes remain unknown, making it difficult to prevent or even diagnose. Patients usually start to show symptoms in their 30s.

But local neurologist Patrick Li Chung-ki has seen patients as young as their early 20s.

Li is chairman of the Hong Kong branch of the Pan-Asian Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis, which held a meeting over the weekend to update doctors from around the world on latest developments.

MS is estimated to affect 2.5 million people worldwide - 100,000 of them in Asia.

The rate of the disease is between one and nine victims for every 100,000 people in Asia. In Hong Kong it hits 4.8 people in every 100,000.

"People with MS may experience muscle weakness, fatigue, sensation change, blurred vision, cognitive difficulties, slurred speech and loss of bladder control," said Japan's Pan-Asian Committee president Takahiko Saida.

"As early symptoms of MS can be subtle and non-specific, and episodes occur at varying time intervals, delay in diagnosis often occurs. If left untreated, some may eventually develop severe and irreversible disabilities, causing them to become totally paralyzed, wheelchair-bound and even blind."

Latest clinical findings show a new drug, Beta Interferon, can delay the progression of the disease by up to 37 percent, reduce relapses and prevent further damage to the brain.

Like many degenerative diseases, there is no complete cure, and damage to the brain and nervous system is reversible, Li said.

Doctors can only help to control and slow down the deterioration.