Doctors in the SAR and overseas are seeing more young patients with Parkinson's disease, a conference heard yesterday.
The disease usually affects the elderly, but one woman who lived in Hong Kong is known to have had Parkinson's since she was 19.
Dr Ho Shu-leong, neurology professor at the University of Hong Kong and a consultant doctor at Queen Mary Hospital, estimates there are more than 8,000 Parkinson's disease patients in Hong Kong, with five to 10 per cent under 40. The rates are comparable to those overseas.
He said the first time he saw the young woman at Tung Wah Hospital, she was 23. She had started to develop the disease at the age of 19.
Her case was 'quite a shock' as there was no family history of the disease. But she had now moved overseas, so further study could not be carried out.
Parkinson's disease is a common, progressive, neurological disorder that results from degeneration of nerve cells in the area of the brain that controls movement. Patients suffer tremors in arms and legs, muscle stiffness, rigidity and slowness of movement.
In Hong Kong, Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital is now seeing nearly 20 patients aged 40 or younger - almost double the figure of five years ago.
