Chapters authored
Pharmacotherapy of Rare Diseases in Serbia: The Current State of Art
Rare diseases affect less than 1 in 2000 or 5 in 10,000 people by definition. Most of those diseases have genetic basis (80% of cases) and first symptoms appear in early childhood (50% of cases). Most of these diseases are chronic and degenerative and pharmacotherapy is not available for many of them. Until today, there are more than 7000 rare diseases. In Serbia, the problem of diagnosis and pharmacotherapy of rare diseases is currently under public scrutiny. Patients who suffer from rare diseases in Serbia face many challenges in terms of awareness, timely diagnosis, and adequate treatment. These people are often misdiagnosed or the diagnosis is delayed due to several problems: lack of awareness among medical professionals, lack of expertise, unavailability and/or high costs of diagnostic tests, etc. According to the National Organization of Patients with Rare Diseases in Serbia (NORBS), many diagnostic procedures have to be conducted abroad and the process comprises many difficulties: high costs, travel expenses, or transportation of biological material. Although national legislation ensures the availability of drugs for those diseases, pharmacotherapy is faced with many problems. In this work, we aim to show that improvement of the knowledge regarding rare diseases among both professionals and patients represents a crucial step for enhancement of perspectives for those patients in our community.
Part of the book: Rare Diseases