At the end of August, the Parc Taulí has started to administer the medicine Kaftrio in pediatric patients between 2 and 5 years of age with Cystic Fibrosis (CF). It is a drug that slows down the deterioration caused by the disease and improves the patients' personal autonomy.
This medicine, which until now could only be administered from the age of 6, marks a before and after in the lives of patients with Cystic Fibrosis. "The sooner the treatment begins, the greater the probability of avoiding sequelae at the pulmonary and digestive level, among others", says Dr. Òscar Asensio, coordinator of the Cystic Fibrosis Unit at Parc Taulí.
Currently, Parc Taulí serves a 90 patients with Cystic Fibrosis. Many of them have seen their prognosis improve exponentially with the implementation of this drug. However, between 30% and 35% of patients still have no treatment. For this reason, Dr. Óscar Asensio emphasizes the importance of implementing "lines of research to find new drugs for these patients, speed up their approval and investigate how we can develop a curative treatment".
Cystic Fibrosis is the most common hereditary genetic disease in Catalonia that seriously and progressively affects the respiratory, digestive and reproductive systems. Currently, this disease affects one in every 6.700 babies and is detected through thescreening neonatal.
El Parc Taulí, Unit of Excellence in the treatment of Cystic Fibrosis
Parc Taulí is one of the three centers of reference in Cystic Fibrosis in Catalonia in the pediatric and adult fields. In addition, since 2020 it has been a Reference Unit with a degree of Excellence in the treatment of the disease, a distinction awarded by the Spanish Society of Cystic Fibrosis.
The Cystic Fibrosis Unit at Parc Taulí is made up of a multidisciplinary team of specialists. In addition, it is part of the Neonatal Screening Program of the Catalan Health Service, and every year it diagnoses around one or two new cases.
The pediatric unit attends to children and adolescents with CF up to the age of 18, at which point they are transferred to the adult unit. From this age onwards, the multidisciplinary team of adults is responsible for carrying out the control of these patients, and also receives patients diagnosed in adulthood who are referred from other pulmonology services of the reference area
September 8, World Cystic Fibrosis Day
World Cystic Fibrosis Day is celebrated this Sunday with the aim of raising awareness among the population about this disease.
In recent years there have been many advances in treatments, which have helped to improve the quality of life of people who suffer from it. For this reason, it is very important to continue research and speed up the approvals of innovative drugs to reach all people with Cystic Fibrosis who still do not have access to treatments.
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