Slovakia has joined a Europe-wide campaign marking the Rare Disease Day for the third year. A spokesperson for the Slovak Alliance for Rare Diseases, Beáta Ramljaková said that, “The Slovak Government approved in October 2012 a national strategy for the development of health care for patients with rare diseases. Subsequently, continuous work on the National Plan for Rare Diseases was launched”.
According to her, the campaign is aimed at raising funds for the national plan, implementing the definitions of rare diseases into legislation, as well as raising the awareness of such diseases among lawmakers. There are some 300,000 people suffering from rare diseases in Slovakia. A disease is considered to be rare when it’s life-threatening or chronically debilitating, and when it affects fewer than 1 in 2,000 people.
