The article discusses the new therapies of thalassemia and the improvements in survival. However new life threatening complications are being recognized, among which severe thromboembolic events, pulmonary hypertension, and pseudoxanthoma elasticum. The price for one year of treatment, in Italy, has been calculated to average 14,000 € per patient. The major cost driver is chelation therapy that represents more than half of total costs, followed by transfusions, surgical interventions, and laboratory tests . The efforts made in the past in screening and educating the population about the disease have been successful. The births of affected children are now sporadic. The recent intense migratory fluxes of people coming from areas of the world where thalassemia and other hemoglobinopathies are highly prevalent will make preventing and treating thalassemia even more challenging in the next decades.
Surviving with thalassemia major: The Italian experience
BORGNA, Caterina
2007
Abstract
The article discusses the new therapies of thalassemia and the improvements in survival. However new life threatening complications are being recognized, among which severe thromboembolic events, pulmonary hypertension, and pseudoxanthoma elasticum. The price for one year of treatment, in Italy, has been calculated to average 14,000 € per patient. The major cost driver is chelation therapy that represents more than half of total costs, followed by transfusions, surgical interventions, and laboratory tests . The efforts made in the past in screening and educating the population about the disease have been successful. The births of affected children are now sporadic. The recent intense migratory fluxes of people coming from areas of the world where thalassemia and other hemoglobinopathies are highly prevalent will make preventing and treating thalassemia even more challenging in the next decades.I documenti in SFERA sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
