Medical tourism has a slightly jaded feel to it, with the impression that it is normally about people seeking treatment in other countries either because the cost of it is so expensive in their own, or because some reason their own country does not provided.
There is another aspect to people seeking treatment abroad, where ever they may live, which got often is much more about the chance of survival.
People who live with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) not only have to live with the often debilitating effects of the condition itself, but also with the knowledge that there is very little likelihood of any cure being developed in the foreseeable future.
There is very little hope that much can really change by way of current research results.
This, sadly has been true for quite a while. It has often led to both a very conservative approach to alternative treatments, and often desperation by people who had this condition to try anything which can alleviate or change the effects of it.
One of the more promising trials currently being pioneered involves the use of chemotherapy drugs to effectively wipe out an individual’s complete immune system, and replace it with stem cell transplant’s.
The reality of it seems to be harrowing as it sounds, but it does at least offer some hope some level of improvement for a number of people.
There have been quite a few reports of its in the press recently.
This is a story on the BBC website of a journalist, Caroline Wyatt, who underwent treatment at a specialist clinic in Mexico.
It gives an incredible insight into both the lead up to undergoing the treatment, and that reality of what is involved in trying to live with the after-effects.
