The province of New Brunswick in Canada has set up a half million dollar fund to help people access Liberation MS Treatment, which is yet to undergo any clinical trials but is hailed by many as successful.
Dr. Jock Murray, a neurologist at Dalhousie University in Halifax is crying foul. He claims the funding is completely contrary to what other Canadian provinces and the MS Society advise. He goes on to claim that it was nothing more than a “feel-good election promise”. New Brunswick is the only province to promise funding to help people get Liberation MS treatment in foreign countries. Other provinces, namely Saskatchewan and Manitoba, have committed funds to conduct clinical trials and Labrador has stated observational studies of patients who have already received Liberation MS treatment.
In New Brunswick, the officials are now trying to work out how the money will be distributed and has said that the funds committed would have to be matched by public contributions.
Worries about patient safety
Meanwhile, Dr. Murray is worried that people will use the money to get treated in Puerto Rico and Tijuana, Mexico. In those places stents are used in the Liberation MS treatment. Most of the deaths associated with the Liberation MS treatment are in cases where the expandable tubes (stents) have been used.
The MS Society of Canada is warning patients to be cautious and take a considered approach before undergoing the treatment. A spokesman for the society said “We think anyone who is going to take part in an experimental treatment should consider doing that in the confines of a clinical trial setting because there are safeguards in place for them.” She explains that they are still evaluating the safety and effectiveness of the Liberation MS treatment because of the lack of clinical trial evidence.
Anecdotal evidence not hard to find
The treatment is very popular in some circles and certainly has its share of patients claiming to have been successfully treated. One of them is a village councilor in Fredericton Junction, N.B. He will tell anyone who will listen that he has all the evidence he needs after having the Liberation MS treatment performed in Albany, NY in the summer of 2011. He claims to have regained his balance as soon as he got up from the table afterwards. He got his energy back and can now walk without having to grab on to anything for balance.
On the other side of the argument are those citing the death of an Ontario man who died from complications following his Liberation MS treatment. The promise of the New Brunswick officials was made prior to this death but it doesn’t seem to have changed any minds. The Premier of the province, David Alward, defends his decision as a good and proper one.
He notes that people die every day from medical complications and the death of one man shouldn’t stand in the way of a potential cure.
