Brazilian Society of Rheumatology working with Ministry of Health to improve situation for RA patients

In a meeting late July with the Minister of Health, Ricardo Barros, the president of the Brazilian Society of Rheumatology (SBR), Georges Christopoulos, presented an agenda for reviving the benefit of patients with rheumatic diseases, positioning the entity also against the eventual reduction of the medications for rheumatoid arthritis (RA), as has been broadcast in recent weeks.

In the agenda of suggestions  presented by the Society, besides widening access for RA patients to biological and biosimilar medications and to injectable forms of traditional medications (of more patient membership), was incorporation of new therapies for the patients with lupus and gout.

During the meeting, the Minister affirmed that he will reactivate, in brief, the Specialties Group and invited the SBR to lend technical assistance to the Ministry in rheumatic illnesses. Rheumatic diseases form a group of more than 100 illnesses, which attack principally movement and cartilages, but also capable of affecting organs like the heart and the kidneys.