Last week’s announcement by the Minister of Health and Community Services Jerome Kennedy regarding the province’s plans to help the funding of treatment trials for the liberation treatment had a positive impact in the MS community.

Newfoundland and Labrador now join other provinces in the pursuit of funding clinical trials that will determine whether the liberation therapy is something to be taken under consideration by MS patients.

For the moment, the “liberation therapy” is not offered in Canada, and the costs of the treatment are not covered by the country’s medical plan for those that want to seek it in Poland, India or Mexico.

The government, in response to the critics it received, has now announced that it will take part in funding clinical trials in Canada. However, what do MS sufferers have to say about that?

Alex Harrold of Westport, diagnosed with MS in 1989 and representative of Newfoundland and Labrador’s branch of the MS Society of Canada said:

“This is a step in the right direction, but clinical trials are still a time consuming process,” he said. “Right now, what people with MS really want is eligibility to have the testing done. They want to move ahead.”

However, testing takes time, and people with MS want to have the treatment available now. Mr. Harrold added:

“At some point, anecdotal evidence becomes so overwhelming that to ignore it would be wilful blindness,” he said. “In some regard, I think that’s where government is, because they keep using the excuse that the results aren’t from a clinical trial – but when you have such overwhelming anecdotal evidence, you don’t really even need the clinical trial. If they’re going to do the clinical trials, then at least couple that with testing people,” he said. “With 1,100-1,200 MS patients in this province, it would be the ideal place to hold trials, and at the same time determine how many people would qualify for this treatment. With all the factors we have right now in this province, I see no reason why we can’t be at the top of MS research. We are a progressive nation – it’s ridiculous that we have to stand in line to go to Poland or India to do something that we certainly have the resources to do here.”