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Today, it’s Rare Disease Day.
That doesn’t have much to do with us, cats, but it’s an important day, then when Claire asked us to speak about it on the blog, we said yes at once. The Swiss Cats are helping humans today !
A disease is called rare in Europe when it affects fewer than 1 to 2000 person (in the USA, when it affects fewer than 200000 Americans).
- 80% of rare diseases have genetic origins ; others are caused by bacterias, virus, allergies, environment, or are degenerative and proliferative.
- 50% of rare diseases touch children.
There are over 6000 rare diseases which are characterised by a broad diversity of symptoms. The disorders vary not only from disease to disease but also from a patient to another one suffering from the same disease.
This diversity can lead to misdiagnosis and delay treatment. There are seldom long-term effective cures, and quality health care is often very expensive.
Huge progresses are made every day thanks to a better international cooperation, like the development of new diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, but the road ahead is still long.
Get involved today and give hope to rare disease patients all over the world !
We did mot know that there was a rare disease day.
We purr that cures can be found.
Purrs Georgia and Julie,
Treasure and JJ
My Master has heard the information in the car while going to the shops. On the Swiss radio, of course. The French have other very important (!!!) information to give, probably.
http://www.orpha.net/consor/cgi-bin/home.php?Lng=EN
http://www.rts.ch/espace-2/programmes/
We hope all the rare diseases go away!
It’s sadly true that there is not much research or treatment available for humans with a rare disease. My momma has a friend who has a special genetic defect in his bones… we hope so much that the university of his town gets the money for a new program to find out more about this disease and to discover a treatment,…
We hope so as well. We have two friends with rare diseases. Purrs
We were unaware there is such a thing as a rare disease day but hope with research cures will be found for them.
Luv Hannah and Lucy xx xx
How kind of you to spread the word . The rarer something is, the less chance of it being researched for a cure.
Dat’s a pawful lot of rare diseases. Gweat posty. We didn’t know ’bout this day.
Luv ya’
Dezi and Lexi
We hope one day soon we won’t need a special day like that!
What a fitting day to bring awareness to rare diseases.
Thank you for taking the time to spread the word to help humans with rare diseases! That was very nice of you, kitties. I hope that we can find ways to help people with rare diseases. In my time working with special needs people, I have seen a few of these rare diseases. The people living through these troubles are very inspiring.
Thank you for spreading the word about this day and what it stands for! Purrs!
That is a really important bit of information. When we all help by small donations or just passing the word the world can move towards healing these diseases.
Pixie you have grown into a beautiful cat. Meow
(Timmy looks to see if his girlfriend is around)
Thanks also for sending support to Buddy Budd. We love the big guy and really appreciate it
Timmy, Dad and Furs
Thank you Timmy ! Purrs, Pixie
We didn’t know there is a rare disease day either.
What an adorable kitty.
Great post guys! We have a couple of friends with rare diseases.
Kisses
Nellie
Thank you for featuring this day! I learned about it on Twitter on Monday, and I really liked it – a great opportunity for rising awareness, and a great choice of date for promoting it.
Its very nice of you Swiss cats to deliver such an impawtant message! Love Dolly
But it can apply to cats, too, I think. The disease that sent my darling brother, Nissy, to Heaven was pretty rare in cats. That’s why it was difficult to treat.
Purrs,
Seville
I had no idea there was such a day designated. Sad that there has to be one though
We hope this brings a lot of attention to this so more research can be done to help people. Thanks for sharing@
We did not know there was Rare Disease Day. Thank you for letting us know, and helping spread the word about this very important day.
We hope one day rare diseases and all diseases really, will have cures so that people need not suffer.
the critters in the cottage xo
I had never heard about this day, but it’s a great initiative to help spread the word about rare diseases.