Promising MS treatment too experimental to approve: minister
Posted May 6, 2010 05:32:01 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Nova Scotians with multiple sclerosis will have to continue to go abroad to receive a promising new treatment for the disease.
Scores of MS sufferers demonstrated outside Province House Wednesday, urging the Dexter government to allow the treatment to be performed here at home – but the province’s health minister says it’s still too early in the game.
The procedure, discovered by an Italian doctor, is called the Liberation Technique. It clears blockages in the jugular vein that seem to have an impact on MS.
Wolfville resident Christopher Alkenbrack, who has suffered from MS for 18 years, says he’s paying $15,000 to go to Poland for the treatment. He says it’s a cost many Nova Scotians can’t afford – and shouldn’t have to contend with.
“If they can deal with something, with a procedure that is not life-threatening, that costs very little to the health care system, why wouldn’t they?” he said. “I don’t understand why they wouldn’t, and that seems to be the question hundreds of people are asking.”
Tory MLA Alfie McLeod, whose wife suffers from MS, notes the experimental treatment has been performed succesfully about 600 times worldwide.
“(It’s) something that has had some resounding results in other parts of the world,” he said. “So let’s give it a shot here in Nova Scotia, and give all these people that are suffering an opportunity to live a more normal life,” he said.
Health Minister Maureen MacDonald says she appreciates the hope the Liberation treatment provides to MS sufferers, but notes the results are still very preliminary.
“This procedure is still very experimental,” she said. “We require additional research to really help us understand what the risks and the benefits of this particular treatment are,”
About 3,000 Nova Scotians have multiple sclerosis.
