Can you tell us a little bit about the paper and what you're hoping readers and listeners would gain from taking time to spend with the text?

Really wrote this paper because previously there was a notion that MS was sort of rare in our continent, but, uh, for treating clinicians, especially neurologists of the continent, uh, we thought that it was as a result of lack of data and a lack of data because there's a lack of making the diagnosis of the disease.

And so we really wanted to find out to the-- crux to the matter and find out what's the diagnostic, uh, state of these things in, in our part of the world in Africa.

And so that's why we set out to write this paper.

Even within countries and even within regions in, in Africa, you can see sort of variations a-across the board.

So that's another thing that, again, as a group, as AfrICTRIMS, that's something that can be more directly pursued.

I do really agree with Maya that indeed really it's actually taking on the low-hanging fruits and working on them really than start jumping up with the infrastructures, which maybe entails a lot of money and a lot of government commitment.

And the main thing is the collaborations, like she did mention, that in AfrICTRIMS came about.

Again, like I said, you see all these things across the continent.

For example, the referral patterns from other surgeons like neurosurgeons and orthopedic surgeons as well as the ophthalmologists too, as well with actually seeing these people first before they refer to us.

So what AfrICTRIMS really did in twenty twenty-four, again, as a collaboration, we did a, like an African online MS course where we had people joining in.

It was very beneficial and well patronized.

Can you talk a little bit about your development of that registry?

What are some barriers that might exist to a quick diagnosis? How has this been impacted by the new diagnostic criteria? And just what does that journey look like for a person in your part of the world? If you can start, please.

Sure, thank you Alfredo.

So thank you very much for the question.

Really when it comes to MS diagnosis and the journey could be quite long in a part of the world in Ghana.

I started by setting up a registry and I realized that on the average my patients take at least five years to get diagnosis from the first sentinel set to the time diagnosis made by a neurologist.

And also as I was quite similar across the sub region in another part of sub-Saharan Africa.

And these are because of the barriers they face before they finally get a diagnosis.

How important then is having organisations like BICTRMS and AFRICTRMS more newly formed to try and make sure that we're increasing the knowledge base of MS specialists and being included in this global conversation of what's happening in the latest and greatest in MS research and treatment updates?