MS is not considered a fatal disease. Lifespan for people with MS is in range the same as the rest of the population. The very rare and unusual exception is the Marburg variation of MS (also called fulminant multiple sclerosis, malignant MS and acute MS which is a compassionate disease by the US government outside MS typical standard clinical) which is extremely aggressive and can cause death. This removes the death stats from the base disease. Marburg is sometimes consider a disease separate from MS. Many doctors specializing in MS do not like the RRMS to SRMS......classifications and use Relapsing and Progressive classifications and many in other countries use this. In that sense Marburg and other variants are Progressive MS and it can be fatal so then MS is fatal. Marburg affects 3 to 5 people new per week per year which equates to less than 500 globally. That's not many. It's a whole lot when you are one of them. Like me.