The doctor whose name has become synonymous with a controversial treatment for multiple sclerosis is speaking out, saying it’s time for the Canadian government to step in and offer a solution.

In a rare interview on Tuesday from the University of Ferrara in Italy, Paolo Zamboni said he has been inundated with urgent pleas for help from MS sufferers around the world and seen his name attached to dangerous practices that have led to accidental deaths and dashed hopes. His theory – which suggests that MS might be caused by blocked veins and could be cured with a simple procedure known as an angioplasty – has spawned an industry beyond his control, he said, and led him to conclude that governments must take responsibility to prevent unsafe treatments abroad by offering MS patients a safe procedure at home.

“The only right defence, in my opinion, is a clear action from the government,” Dr. Zamboni said.

It has been just one year since the Italian medical professor turned the MS community on its head by suggesting that MS – long regarded as an autoimmune disease – might be caused by chronic cerebro-spinal venous insufficiency. Since then, hundreds of Canadians have sought out the unproven “liberation” treatment overseas, including an Ontario man named Mahir Mostic, who died last month after undergoing an angioplasty in a Costa Rican clinic.