Bone and joint diseases are becoming more common as the population ages. Fortunately, the availability of the latest biological drugs has improved significantly, said the participants of the Rheumatology 2010 conference.
The Rheumatology 2010 conference was held on Tuesday in Warsaw.
As with diabetes, depression and high blood pressure, rheumatic diseases – such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS), resemble an iceberg, largely hidden from our eyesight. Therefore, it is difficult to determine how many people really suffer from them – said the director of the National Institute of Public Health, prof. Miroslaw Wysocki.
It is very important to make a diagnosis quickly and effectively – pointed out the president of the Polish Rheumatological Society, prof. Witold Tłustochowicz. An effective program for detecting rheumatic diseases was presented by Dr. Sławomir Jeka from the University Hospital in Bydgoszcz.
In the European Union countries, over 100 million people of all ages, including young people and even children, suffer from rheumatic diseases. It is not only a health problem, but also a social and economic problem – these diseases lead to disability, which is associated with job loss and retirement. More than 60 percent of them do not work. sick, which makes it the most common cause of early disability and sickness absenteeism. Rheumatic diseases greatly reduce the quality of life and, although not the direct cause of death, shorten life by about 10 years, attacking, among others, the circulatory system, liver and kidneys.
Although anti-inflammatory and analgesic agents are the most commonly used drugs, biological drugs are playing an increasingly important role – they better prevent changes in joints, cause long-term withdrawal of disease symptoms (remission), improve patients’ quality of life and reduce indirect costs. They are expensive, but they are effective in stopping the disease even in over 50% of cases, while traditional drugs are able to do so in a few or a dozen or so percent.
Out of 2792 accepted applications for treatment with biological preparations, only 79 were rejected. – Thanks to negotiations conducted by the Ministry of Health, it was possible to lower prices to the lowest level in Europe, which allows treating more patients – said Deputy Minister of Health Marek Twardowski. However, the use of these opportunities depends on hospitals and their location – the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Voivodeship spends the most on the patient, while the Lubuskie Voivodeship spends the least.
Grzegorz Cessak, president of the Office for Registration of Medicinal Products, Medical Devices and Biocidal Products, reminded that several non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs should not be combined in the treatment of joint diseases – their beneficial effects do not become stronger, but the risk of complications increases (PAP).