DOCTORS in Canada are planning to destroy the immune systems of people with
multiple sclerosis in a bid to beat the disease.
Mark Freedman and Harold Atkins, both at the Ottawa Hospital, will start a
trial this autumn on 30 patients with very severe MS. Although the procedure is
very risky, “there’s a 95 per cent chance they’ll be in a wheelchair in ten
years, no matter what we do”, says Freedman.
MS is an autoimmune disease in which a sufferer’s immune system attacks
myelin, the fatty material that insulates cells in the nervous system, leading
to vision problems, numbness…
