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Day of Rare Diseases

A nurse carries mosquito nets which are used to prevent mosquitoes that might carry Zika, Dengue and Chikungunya viruses from biting pregnant mothers at the Women National Hospital, in San Salvador, El Salvador February 5, 2016. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas

There are diseases that are slow to be diagnostic because so little is known about them.

These are called rare diseases and affect 6 to 7 million Mexicans at some point in life.

The International Rare Disease Day released information that there around 7 thousand rare, severe and potentially fatal diseases that very little is known about.

Esther Lieberman, a geneticist at the National Institute of Pediatrics noted that there were 500 patients of such cases in Mexico and not all have a treatment.

According to Lieberman, “At this time nearly 500 patients with any of these lysosomal diseases, many of these have had to access a specific treatment for the disease.”

These rare diseases with little in common range from oncological, infectious, genetic, autoimmune and neurological.

Among these diseases there are 50 “Lysosomal” diseases of which have 5 to 6 treatments.

The geneticist indicated that it should be addressed in a timely manner, since childhood, and that if failed to do there is a greater risk of disability or fatal consequences.

“I think to the extent that the health professional is aware that their patients may have these diseases, they have to establish treatments in a timely manner, and thus can reverse the natural progress of our patients’ diseases,” said Leiberman.

She said Mexico is ready for early detection and treatment medication. But due to the policies of health institutions, not everyone is a candidate for treatment.

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