TEHRAN – The ministry of health will provide services to patients who are suffering from hard-to-treat and rare diseases during the Nowruz (New Year) holidays, starting March 21.

The activities of all government-run dialysis and dental clinics, centers for blood transfusion services to thalassemia patients, coagulation factor injection centers for hemophilia patients, as well as heart attack, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy centers will continue during Nowruz, IRNA quoted Nasser Malekpour, a health ministry official, as saying on Saturday.

He also noted that 15 centers for comprehensive services to MS patients will be open round the clock and services such as pulse therapy will be available at least in one center. “More than 100 chemotherapy and radiotherapy centers will also be active. Moreover, 211 centers with 10,310 hospital beds are active in the country for accepting patients with mental illnesses to provide services.”

A total of 442 rare diseases have been identified in the country, according to a recent report by the Rare Disease Foundation.

The incidence of rare diseases is very low to the extent that maybe one or two people with a certain rare disease are present in the country. Some rare diseases such as ‘butterfly skin or EB’, ‘Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA)’, ‘Metabolic diseases’, ‘Autism’, and ‘Dystrophies' are among the most common cases in the country.

In this regard, National Rare Disease Day is held annually on the eighth day of Esfand (the last Iranian calendar month), which falls on February 26, to raise awareness and generate support for individuals with rare diseases and their families.

The Day was approved to be designated as the national day of rare disease in the national calendar in May 2021.