The pressure is on the NDP government to reconsider its decision not to pay for studies of a controversial and experimental treatment for Nova Scotians with multiple sclerosis.

Cape Breton West MLA Alfie MacLeod reintroduced legislation Thursday that would lead to clinical trials of so-called liberation therapy, on the same day supporters gathered outside Province House as part of a countrywide campaign to rally for access to the treatment.

MacLeod, a Tory, said he wants Nova Scotia to become a leader in determining whether liberation therapy is an effective treatment against MS. His wife, Shirley, underwent the treatment in Mexico last year.

"People ask me, how do I know it works? I tell them, I sleep with proof," he told about 40 people gathered outside Province House.

"She has seen an increase in her energy, she has seen an increase in the quality of her life and she’s certainly much happier now that she’s had the treatment."

Already, Saskatchewan and Manitoba have moved to fund trials, Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador will fund studies of patients treated elsewhere and New Brunswick is offering $500,000 to help those who want to receive the treatment somewhere else.

But last year, the federal government said there isn’t yet enough evidence to support the procedure. Premier Darrell Dexter has said his government supports national trials, with Ottawa taking the lead in funding them, but the province wouldn’t move ahead on its own.

He repeated that position at the legislature when questioned by Tory Leader Jamie Baillie.

"We will participate — if there are national trials — in the process that is set out by Health Canada," Dexter said in question period.

The treatment is based on research by an Italian physician that suggests the disease, which affects the central nervous system, is related to a buildup of iron in the brain, resulting from constricted blood flow.

The clinical trials would investigate a surgical procedure done in other countries, including Mexico, Poland and Bulgaria, which uses a balloon angioplasty to open up the blocked veins.

According to the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada, Canadians have one of the highest rates of multiple sclerosis in the world. On a per capita basis, the largest number of people with the neurological disease live in Atlantic Canada and the Prairies.

Dozens of Canadians are believed to have travelled to other countries for the treatment.

Baillie asked Health Minister Maureen MacDonald whether those patients are able to receive followup care in this province. He said some patients’ family doctors have said referring them to a specialist would open them to the possibility of discipline.

MacDonald said her department hasn’t issued any directives to family doctors telling them not to refer multiple sclerosis patients to specialists. She said individual doctors make their own clinical judgments, and the province’s MS clinics don’t turn people away.

Demonstrations in support of trials were expected to be held from Halifax to Victoria, while worldwide rallies were also planned for Thursday.

Cole Harbour resident Crystal Bruce was among those who rallied outside Province House.

Bruce wore a sign that said I Am MS Symptom-Free. Ask Me How. She had her treatment in Albany, N.Y., in November.

"When I left, I had a cane and I was regressing quite fast. And I know that if I didn’t have this done like I did in November, right now I’d probably have a walker."

The 35-year-old said her vision improved immediately and the tightening in her chest went away. She said she is fighting to make the same treatment available here.

"I’m here for those who can’t do it for themselves, and all the MS patients that can’t afford to go away for treatment or can’t leave the country for treatment because they’re too ill."

She also said that she has a son and the disease could be genetic.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1241940.html