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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Stop our misery, MS patients plead

Urge politicians to fund treatment trials

By: Bruce Owen

Posted: 09/21/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

MS sufferers Rick Keith and Hanna Finnbogason demanded action during rally at the legislature. (JOE.BRYKSA@FREEPRESS.MB.CA)

HANNA Finnbogason is fresh back from Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, and couldn't feel better.

She was one of six Canadians who flew south to get the so-called liberation treatment, a relatively brief surgical process to treat multiple sclerosis.

"My pain is gone," she said Monday on the steps of the Manitoba legislature. "I was at the point where I wanted cut off my arm because of the pain."

Finnbogason was one of about 50 people who participated in a rally to urge government and medical officials to approve liberation treatment in Canada, or at least start investigating whether it's a bonifide treatment for MS sufferers. Right now, many people with MS travel to the United States, Mexico and Europe for treatment because it's not recognized in Canada.

"I was at the point where I couldn't walk," Finnbogason said, explaining why she paid $15,000 for the 45-minute procedure.

"It couldn't wait."

The rally coincided with similar events held across the country and on Parliament Hill.

The goal is to convince politicians to get the medical community onside to fast-track clinical trials of the controversial treatment.

Federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq said last week the government "has never said no" to funding clinical trials.

Aglukkaq said Ottawa will have a better idea about whether it will move forward with clinical trials once the results of several research projects are available.

The treatment, pioneered by Italian doctor Paolo Zamboni, links blocked veins to multiple sclerosis, a chronic and often disabling disease targeting the brain and spinal cord. It involves unblocking narrowed neck veins using a procedure called balloon angioplasty. The technique is the same one used to widen coronary arteries plugged by plaque to prevent a heart attack or stroke.

However, some doctors in Canada have been critical of the treatment, dubbed Chronic Cerebrospinal Venous Insufficiency (CCSVI), insisting more research needs to be done.

Manitoba Health Minister Theresa Oswald told the rally the province would co-fund clinical trials, but only if science backs up the treatment. Manitoba has one of the highest rates of the disease in the country.

MS patients such as Rick Keith said clinical trials should start immedately because more people will seek the treatment outside the country.

The health system has no idea who they are or whether they benefit from it as statistics aren't tracked, he added.

"Give us the choice," he said. "Why force people to live in misery?"

-- with files from the wire services

bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 21, 2010 A4

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