Especially since the country counts two million people with rare diseases, the causes of which are often hereditary, as revealed by Professor Belkacem Bayoudh, head of the Pediatric Department at Setif Hospital, eastern Algeria.
According to the explanations that Bayoudh gave to the state radio recently, these diseases cause serious abnormalities in the organs of the child’s body, in the spleen, liver, and heart, in addition to hemophilia.
While the head of the Association of Rare Diseases and Autism, Mouloud Mouchou, shocked the Algerians a few days ago, when he talked about identifying more than 270 rare diseases in several Algerian cities, most notably Tizi Ouzou, Bejaia, Ghardaia and Jijel, explaining that studies showed that the cause of their appearance is primarily due to a percentage of more than 35 percent. , to the phenomenon of consanguineous marriage and the presence of genes transmitted through the births resulting from this marriage.
He also explained that rare diseases include immunodeficiency, cellular metabolism, scleroderma, Sjogren’s syndrome, hereditary blood disease, Welchon and Bestein syndrome, arterial blood clots, and opiate poisoning.
Doctors and specialists call on the country’s health authorities to establish specialized centers to treat people with these diseases, to reduce the large expenses incurred by the state and the patients’ families, while patients go for treatment in hospitals abroad, as well as in order to reduce the complex and slow administrative procedures during the treatment process abroad.
For its part, the country’s health authorities intend to allocate a financial envelope of 12 billion dinars to import medicines and nutritional supplements for 20 rare diseases in Algeria, and follow up on these diseases to limit their spread.
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune had instructed the Ministry of Health to provide free care by the state for 373 children sick with cellular metabolism and immunodeficiency, across 18 provinces (provinces), by providing nutritional supplements and medicines.
Tebboune also ordered, in coordination with associations specialized in rare diseases, to keep these diseases under the microscope of the state for early detection.
It is noteworthy that people with these rare diseases suffer daily problems, in the absence of early detection devices for the disease.
While these diseases are called rare or orphan due to the small number of people infected with them compared to other diseases, and they usually affect less than five out of every ten thousand people.