Amidst the craziness of 2020, there’s still some good and hope for this world. And right when millions of students around the world are struggling to graduate during this crisis, an Egyptian group of university seniors decided to support a great cause.

Raise your hands if you’ve heard of multiple sclerosis (MS). If not, then we don’t blame you, because its lack of awareness in Egypt is the very reason why these seniors chose it as their graduation project topic. Kashfak Bedayt Salamtk is a campaign created by Mass Comm grad students at Misr International University (MIU) to raise awareness about MS and the importance of its early detection. But first, what exactly is MS?

MS is a disease that hits the central nervous system, which happens when the immunity system attacks the myelin, the protective sheath that surrounds nerve fibres. This leads to communication problems between the brain and the rest of the body, which can result in disability.

The issue here is that the symptoms are common and may seem insignificant in the beginning, but down the road, the case gets more complicated. Symptoms may include fatigue, vision problems, numbness, tingling, muscle spasms, stiffness and weakness, mobility problems, pain, problems with thinking, learning, and planning, depression and anxiety, sexual problems, bladder problems, bowel problems, as well as speech and swallowing difficulties.

People between the ages of 16 and 45 are the ones who are prone to get MS the most, especially females. Women are more than two to three times as likely as men to be at risk of MS.

To learn more about MS, check out the seniors’ Facebook page or Instagram, and if you feel that you may have the symptoms, then you’d better run some tests!