Sick warned against falling for 'stem cell' tourism

News.com.au ^ | 25 Oct 2008 | Janelle Miles

[BGHater]

A NEW type of traveller dubbed the stem cell tourist is worrying Australian scientists and doctors who say the vulnerable ill are being duped.

Australians with debilitating and sometimes terminal diseases are spending tens of thousands of dollars for unproved stem cell treatments in Third World countries.

Many, such as Townsville paraplegic Asti Poole, are coming home out of pocket, and extremely let down, after seeing little or no improvement in their conditions.

Ms Poole, 28, went to an infertility specialist's clinic in India last year for two months of embryonic stem cell treatment.

Four other Australians were also at the clinic receiving treatment for spinal cord injuries. None has shown significant improvement.

"We'd all joke that we were getting our dose of water for the day," Ms Poole recalls.

"It just looked like they had filled a needle up with water.

"We used to joke that we were all being conned. None of us are miraculously walking."

Brisbane-based stem cell researcher Alan Mackay-Sim receives weekly emails and phone calls from "vulnerable people" worldwide, desperate for a cure.

"They're vulnerable because of their injury, they're vulnerable because of the social consequences ... they're vulnerable to people offering hope," Professor Mackay-Sim said.

"If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. These are unproven treatments and therefore they're likely to be a waste of money.

"If there was something that we know really helps people it would be more widely used."

Professor Mackay-Sim is director of the National Adult Stem Cell Research Centre, based at Griffith University. He understands the drive of people to seek a cure.

"I'm not in the business of abusing people for their decision," he said.

[weegee]

"We used to joke that we were all being conned. None of us are miraculously walking."

Christopher Reeve and John Kerry tried to con America.