British MS patient makes marked improvement after treatment in Türkiye

By Ayse Yildiz

ANTALYA, Türkiye (AA) - After years of treatment in the UK for multiple sclerosis (MS), a British academic has made progress against the disease thanks to hospitals in Türkiye.

Osman Latiff, a researcher and author at London Royal Holloway University, was diagnosed a decade ago with primary progressive MS, a disease that can cause problems with movement, vision, and cognition by affecting the brain and spinal cord.

Despite the treatment he received in the UK, Latiff's disease continued to progress and he started having trouble keeping his balance, falling down frequently and growing weaker as time went on, he told Anadolu Agency.

Latiff, 40, began to looking for other opportunities for treatment in the UK, as well as Europe, the US, and Türkiye.

Deciding to continue his treatment in Türkiye after having heard of the successes Turkish doctors have had in treating MS, Latiff traveled to the southern province of Antalya, where he was checked in to the local Training and Research Hospital with the help of relatives he had in the country.

At the hospital, he started using RoboGait, a walking rehabilitation robot produced by a Turkish company.

Following number of sessions, Latiff said, he started feeling marked improvements after a long time of having difficulty walking and frequent fatigue.

The robotic treatment also helped in the regeneration of his brain, Latiff said, adding that the process of accessing treatment in the UK was more lengthy.

He underlined that the same procedures took much less time in Türkiye, thanking his doctors and family who helped him receive the treatment.

- Robotic rehabilitation's corrective effect on motor-skills loss

Sebnem Koldas Dogan, one of the doctors overseeing Latiff's case at the hospital's robotic rehabilitation unit, told Anadolu Agency that this form of treatment could be used to support more traditional methods to help patients of such as conditions as stroke, spinal cord injury, cerebral palsy, Parkinson's disease, and MS.

Noting that robotic rehabilitation also helps restore losses in body function, Dogan underscored that the device was important in improving the balance, coordination, and gait of MS patients.

"Robotic rehabilitation has a healing effect on motor-skills loss," she said.

* Writing by Merve Berker