The State Health Insurance Fund (RFZO) will cover the costs of diagnostics, treatment, medical aids and rehabilitation for patients with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) as of April this year, Jovana Simanović, director of the Medicines and Pharmacoeconomics Sector of the RFZO, said yesterday.
Screening for this rare, very serious and progressive disease is currently being carried out as a pilot project at the Narodni Front maternity hospital in Belgrade, and, as of April this year, it will be available at all maternity hospitals in Serbia.
Each person ages 35 to 37 is a carrier of the recessive spinal muscular atrophy gene. When two such people meet and decide to have offspring, there is a 25 percent chance that a child will be born with SMA. The only way for experts to “catch” such a genetic mutation in time is the screening of newborns, which detects the disease in the pre-symptomatic phase.
(Politika, 22.03.2023)
https://www.politika.rs/sr/clanak/544009/spinalna-misicna-atrofija-skrining-porodilista
This post is also available in: Italiano