Efficacy of Prolonged Implementation of National Programs for Prevention and Treatment of ?-Thalassemia Patients. The Greek Experience - Abstract
Greece is one of the few countries with high incidence of ?-thalassemia trait in which prolonged national programs for prevention and treatment were implemented.
Evaluation of treatment program in 1979, demonstrated amelioration of the main clinical features of the disease, significant improvement in survival and quality of life and a continuous increase on patients’ cohort and worsening of disease burden. Evaluation of combined implementation of the two programs in 2009 demonstrated: i) further amelioration of the clinical features and improvement in survival and quality of life , ii) a gradual reduction in the annual input of affected neonates and prevention of 4.329 births of affected fetuses versus 1,010 born, and iii) wide changes in the age distribution of thalassemia patients. In 2009 only 6.8% of patients were below 15years compared to 68% of adults above the age of 30 years.
The important conclusion is that a prolonged and efficient implementation of combined prevention and treatment programs can change the most common fatal genetic disease of childhood to a rare chronic one with prolonged survival and a reasonable quality of life, common in adults.