World Rare Disease Day : Everybody Is Concerned

February 28, 2022, was dedicated to raising awareness for the 300 million people living with a rare disease around the world. In Cameroon, experts say it is difficult to have statistics on the diseases because people are not diagnosed or are poorly diagnosed and also because enough research has not been carried out on rare diseases in the country. But that which is certain is that all Cameroonians should be concerned about rare diseases because anybody can be infected. 
According to a Medical Epidemiologist at a Public Health Research Centre, Dr Fai Karl, in layman terms, rare diseases are unrecognized or unusual and more concretely, are rarely seen or recognized in the general population. In epidemiology, Dr Fai says these are diseases that are found in just one person per 200,000 persons in the population. There exist more than 7,000 rare diseases in the world, with majority of about 95 per cent of these having genetic causes. Most of these diseases will manifest right from childhood and throughout life. In as much as the majority is genetic, some rare diseases are due to infections with viruses, bacteria, and parasites. “We should also take note that other factors contribute to a disease or disorder being called rare. These could be because they are neglected, abandoned, or orphaned, inadequate diagnosis or absence of diagnosis and some have very high costs of treatment”, Dr Fai underlined. 
In Cameroon, most rare diseases are seen as a manifestation of something mystical being attributed to witchcraft and curses. Experts say this has led to most people with such diseases to hide at home due to fear of societal stigmatization. However, some of these diseases can be detected depending on the cause. It is said that many unknowingly carry rare disease gene mutations that put them or their offspring at risk for developing rare diseases. Doctors say genomic screening can detect some of these...