To the Editor:
As many as 75,000 Canadians suffer from Multiple Sclerosis (MS). This summer has brought them both good news and bad.
On the good side, clinical trials have now begun which will eventually involve more than 80 people from Saskatchewan in a test of the validity of "liberation therapy" as a treatment for symptoms associated with MS.
Funded by the Saskatchewan government and spread over the next two years, these people will travel to medical facilities in New York where about half will actually receive the controversial therapy, while the others get a placebo. Participants won't know which is which, so the results of the therapy can be measured in a totally impartial manner.
Liberation therapy focuses on abnormalities in the venous system, using a process similar to angioplasty. Some 3,000 Canadians have sought this treatment abroad. It's not available in Canada and hasn't yet been proven effective.
The trials in New York will help determine once and for all whether liberation therapy works. Kudos to Saskatchewan for trying to get reliable answers.
On the bad side, the federal government continues to drags its feet. Over 14 months ago, the feds promised to conduct nation-wide Canadian clinical trials on liberation therapy, but they're still stuck at the starting gate.
Meanwhile, federal authorities seem quite willing to fast track certain new drugs for the treatment of MS, some of which have checkered histories with drug approval agencies in Europe, the United States and elsewhere. Why does the government jump so readily to the tune of big-pharma, while ignoring so many MS patients themselves?
It remains exceedingly difficult for those 3,000 Canadians who have sought some relief from MS - and some hope for the future - by pursuing liberation treatments in foreign countries (the US, Italy, Bulgaria, Mexico, etc.). Back home, they're too often ostracized and can't get proper monitoring or follow-up care.
All those 3,000 cases should have been carefully tracked from Day-One - what a trial sample that would have produced! And surely, basic human compassion calls for decent on-going care and attention once they get home.
Ralph Goodale, MP, Wascana, SK.
