Rare disease patient organizations in Ecuador, including those representing pituitary patients, demanded governmental and health authorities for an immediate resolution on the availability of medications.
According to Margarita Vasquez Amoroso, a patient advocate leader in Ecuador, the only medication available in Ecuador for treating Acromegaly are somatostatin analogs (octreotide) which are effective in normalizing IGF-1 in up to 50% of patients. However, that medication, she says, has been available sporadically. “You will have patients who receive the medication for two or three months, and then, because of shortages, they will not receive medication for up to 6 months”. It is practically impossible to manage someone’s disease that way”, she adds. According to documents provided by FAETH, several leading healthcare institutions did not offer medication from February 2021 to October of that year.
Margarita, an acromegaly patient, spoke in detail about the issues facing the people with Acromegaly in Ecuador. She is the president of Pituitary Patients Support Foundation (FAETH) based in Guayaquil, Ecuador one of the leading advocacy organizations in that part of the world.
FAETH (Fundación de Apoyo a Enfermos con Trastornos Hipofisarios) Pituitary Patients Support Foundation focuses on awareness, support, and the dissemination of information to educate the patient about their disease, the importance of early diagnosis and proper treatment.
Click here to read about other important news affecting pituitary patients around the world. And, if you‘d like to learn about FAETH you can follow the organization’s website and Facebook postings
© 2022, Pituitary World News. All rights reserved.