A woman with multiple sclerosis was able to walk once more thanks to an unusual remedy.
Shana Pezaro, 36, from Hove, East Sussex, was given antiretroviral drugs after fearing she may have contracted HIV. Within days of taking her new prescription, she noticed her MS symptoms were beginning to alleviate.
After years of being confined to a wheelchair, she was walking up and down stairs. It’s truly remarkable, considering MS is an incurable condition that leads to sight loss, pain, fatigue and disability. She was diagnosed with the ailment at 28, halting her career as a dancer.
“Three days after I took the drugs I walked up a flight of stairs,” she said. “That was an unbelievable, massive change.”
Prof Julian Gold from the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney took notice of this miraculous medical discovery that he set up clinical trials to examine the impact of single or combination antiretroviral drugs on MS patients.
His initial findings reported antiretroviral treatment may suppress other viruses such as those which may cause MS.
“The next stage of the investigation is to use a very similar combination [of HIV drugs] that Shana took. I think that might be quite optimistic,” he said.
And a spokeswoman for the MS Society added: “Our growing understanding tells us that viruses have a role to play in multiple sclerosis and it will be interesting to see the trial results – positive findings mean another step on the road to beating MS.”
Photo credit: vchal/Shutterstock
