Lupus Management: Rapid Strategies by Pelissero (Les Group)

Rome, 11 February (Adnkronos Health) – “Before arriving at a multidisciplinary center, many people” with lupus “face an obstacle course” which can lead “to a worsening of clinical conditions. Ensuring fair and timely access to care should be the fundamental objective”. Thus Rosa Pelissero, president of Gruppo Les Italiano, comments on the results of the listening project ‘Italian Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (Sle) Patients: Overview of Their Quality of Life and Unmet Needs’, published in the ‘Journal of Clinical Medicine’. “Lupus – continues Pelissero – mainly affects young women, between 15 and 40 years old, a phase in which adaptation in the workplace is very difficult because you often lose your job or your career is blocked: those who live with the disease have to work twice as hard to demonstrate that they are still capable, while the pathology remains invisible and few understand chronic fatigue, a profound tiredness that accompanies the patient even in periods of remission”. Territorial differences also have an impact. “Deep inequalities persist between the regions – underlines Pelissero – with patients forced to make journeys of hope to obtain adequate care”. Prompt treatment, however, can avoid very serious consequences. “A lupus that affects a kidney must be seen immediately, otherwise there will be a transplant – he specifies – But also crucial, given the young age of the patients, is the management of the pregnancy, which must take place in a multidisciplinary centre, with joint work between a rheumatologist, a nephrologist and specialists in the obstetric area”. Even from an economic point of view, Pelissero insists on the value of early management. “The lupus patient costs money, but by spending a little more immediately and guaranteeing timely access to treatment – he concludes – the person is able to carry out his working life without weighing on healthcare costs, because the relationship between costs and benefits is an advantage not only for the patient, but also for society”.