In the first data summary provided by the National ALS Registry, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that Lou Gehrig's disease, or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), occurs in an extremely low percentage of the population.
The CDC's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry found that about 4 in 100,000 people live with ALS in the United States. The statistics were released in this week's CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) on Friday. The National ALS Registry recorded cases of Lou Gehrig's disease nationwide, and the percentage of cases closely resembled previous estimates from Europe as well as smaller studies conducted in the US.
ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. The disease attacks motor neurons, which can affect the brain's ability to initiate and control muscle movement because they can no longer send impulses to muscle fibers that help orchestrate such movements. As a result, quickly progressing cases of ALS result in paralysis of the muscles and then declining functions in speech, swallowing and breathing. There is no cure or treatment for the ailment, and an estimated 75% of those diagnosed die within five years.
The National ALS Registry gathered data from October 19, 2010 through December 31, 2011 and found that 12,187 were living with ALS; the disease was more common among whites, males, non-Hispanics, and persons aged 60-69 years; white men and women were twice as likely to have ALS than black men and women; and males had a higher rate than females across all races. According to the report, Massachusetts is the only state that tracks the incidence of Lou Gehrig's disease in the same manner as obesity, heart disease, and other chronic conditions. The National ALS Registry provided the first comprehensive study of the disease nationwide.
The ALS Association is the leader in global ALS research and has committed $90 million to find effective treatments as well as a cure. Their most recent finding was a new genetic mutation that is considered the most common cause of ALS. Researchers discovered that a genetic lesion on the chromosome 9p21 revealed an association in the diagnoses of one-third of familial ALS cases.
The CDC released the ALS information in a study entitled, "Quantifying a Nonnotifiable Disease in the United States: The National Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Registry Model," which was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
