Saskatchewan Government Squandering Precious Resources

Zamboni Treatment Shot Down in Flames

Two years ago, give or take a couple of weeks I blogged about the so-called MS Liberation Treatment and the Brad Wall government's support of it.

I said "In the face of two new European studies debunking controversial Dr. Zamboni's "Liberation Treatment" for Multiple Sclerosis Saskatchewan's Premier figures damn the torpedoes. full speed ahead. Who knows what drives him but I'd wager it was a meeting with someone in small town Saskatchewan or from his church who came to him with a heart wrenching story about living with MS and not a well thought out strategy from within the Saskatchewan Ministry of Health."

Originally Saskatchewan put up $5 million and issued a call for clinical trial proposals in October 2010. The goal was to proceed with those trials by the spring of 2011.

However, by June 2011, it was revealed that only one proposal had been received and that was lacking in substance.

So in January 2012, Brad and his buddies decided to send multiple sclerosis patients to the U.S. for the clinical trial of a controversial treatment. The province is providing $2.2 million so that 86 MS patients can be included in the two-year, trial at the Albany Medical Center. So for, one patient, a man from Saskatoon, has been selected to participate.

The Harper government followed Wall and pledged $5 million in support of the study.

Meanwhile, a study was released Tuesday proving yet further conformation that Dr. Zambini's treatment is not credible. The finding have prompted an American  MS expert to criticise Canadian Government's support for the treatment. The Globe & Mail quotes David Hafler, the Chair of the Neurology Department at Yale University saying, "The debate in the scientific community was brief, swift and is over. The government has squandered precious resources not using peer review, but instead using emotion and theologic belief and I think shame of the Canadian Government for bowing to those pressures."

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, after receiving reports of injuries and deaths to patients undergoing the treatment, issued warning against participating in the procedure. Canadian Health Minister, Leona Aglukaq was not surprisingly unavailable for comment.

One might argue that the Liberation Treatment, is no treatment at all as a growing number of studies all point to the fact that blocked veins have no impact on the development of MS.

Is anyone listening?