The waves of immigration from countries of southeast Asia such as the Middle East, India, Egypt, Africa are promoting the return of congenital hereditary, endemic in countries of origin, which need to be further developed by us . When we speak of congenital, it means all those forms that involve red blood cells both in shape, size and number.
Gemini Fiorelli, director of the Department of Internal Medicine Ospedale Maggiore is a ‘business unit mainly to the care of two particular types of congenital anemia: thalassemia and the hemoglobinopathies. Professor Maria Domenica Cappellini, director of the Center congenital IRCCS Ospedale Maggiore, Mangiagalli e Regina Elena, important centers in the Lombardy region says with certainty that in the next 15 years these forms of anemia are a serious health threat worldwide.
The thalassemia (from the Greek thalassa = sea), better known as Mediterranean anemia or microcitemia just endemic to the characteristics that distinguishes it, also involves a number of Italians who, if struck in the most serious as beta thalassemia major requires, since the early months of life, blood transfusion continue to be coupled with iron chelation therapy daily, every patient needs an average of 2-3 units of red blood cells to be taken every 15/20 days to maintain a hemoglobin level correctly, it cannot also neglect the iron-chelation therapy to remove the excess iron accumulated in your body.
So are people who will always need assistance and for which, it is the case of say, blood is life. Then not only children but also adults, for which, due to improved therapies, it is increasingly possible to make a normal life, in particular the introduction of a new oral medication to treat iron chelator, deferasirox (available from a few months even by us) predisposes patients and their families to a more serene life.
The drug was registered in the United States in November 2006 and approved by the EMEA in spring 2007, is available in a hospital and is taken only once a day. We are in expectation that the research discovers more and more effective therapies for patients’ lives.