Gazan with multiple sclerosis pleads for help

By Ali Semerci and Zeynep Tufekci

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – Graduating from Ankara University in Turkey, Palestinian Mohamed Abdulatif had high hopes of leading an honorable life for his family. His dream, however, has turned into a nightmare when he contracted Multiple Sclerosis disease.

“Multiple Sclerosis (MS) took a firm grip on my life. There is no cure and it spreads in my body day by day,” Abdulatif told Anadolu Agency on Sunday.

“In the beginning, it was just tingling in my fingers but now my whole body is in agony,” he said.

Multiple sclerosis is an unpredictable, often disabling disease that affects the brain and central nervous system -- disrupting the flow of information from the brain to the body and often limits mobility.

Symptoms include tingling, numbness, blindness and paralysis.

Abdulatif, from the Gaza Strip, said he was in raptures when he graduated from Food Engineering Department of Ankara University and started to work in a factory in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

"After I started my job, I contracted the disease, which has turned my life upside-down,” he recalled. “Medicines only ease my pains and prevent the disease from spreading,” he said.

Abdulatif, who is now unemployed, said his wife also suffers from spinal cord inflammation, adding that their economic conditions prevent them from pursuing sophisticated drugs developed in Europe or the U.S.

"I barely make ends meet with the 200 dollars I get from the Social Affairs Ministry in Gaza every three months,” he said. “I could do Turkish translation, but there is no such job available in Gaza.”

“I just want to provide for my family and lead an honorable life," Abdulatif said.

* Ali Murat Alhas contributed to this report from Ankara