Phenylketonuria (PKU) is a disease whose severity and burden remains poorly understood. There is a false perception that early diagnosis and a good standard of care have ‘solved’ the problem, and that all European patients have equal access to such care. PKU is a rare inherited genetic disorder resulting from a deficiency in the enzyme that metabolises the amino acid phenylalanine (Phe). If left untreated, PKU causes brain damage, severe developmental, psychological and psychiatric disorders in patients. PKU affects each patient differently throughout their lives depending on the severity of their disease, their age at diagnosis, the treatments they follow …
High-quality healthcare for adults with PKU must be a priority, just as it is for children with PKU
“The fact that the benefits from PKU treatment in childhood are ‘clear and immediate’ does not equate that there are no benefits for PKU treatment in adulthood” On June 28th PKU community celebrates International PKU Day. This year, E.S.PKU decided to raise awareness of adults with PKU by running a successful campaign “The Life of adults with PKU”. Throughout June on E.S.PKU social media various statements were published about the challenges of adults with Phenylketonuria. Since Phenylketonuria (PKU) is diagnosed in the early stages of life (nowadays in newborn screening), it has traditionally been perceived as a childhood disease. The …
EU CPA on PKU and ESPKU join to launch a new campaign
International PKU Day: European Parliament Cross-Party Alliance on PKU and ESPKU jointly launch campaign to ensure all rare disease patients continue to benefit from future innovation Today, International PKU Day, marks the launch of an advocacy campaign to ensure that the foreseen revision of the EU Orphan Medicinal Products (OMP) Regulation will continue to benefit all people living with rare diseases, including Phenylketonuria (PKU). This campaign is led by the European Parliament Cross-Party Alliance on PKU and the European Society for Phenylketonuria (ESPKU)[1]. Prior to the existence of the OMP Regulation, only 8 medicinal products were available for patients living …
E.S.PKU Patient Survey
Dear ESPKU Member Organisations I hope you are all well, and , on behalf of the ESPKU Board , thank you all, for your tremendous support for Ukrainian PKU patients. The ESPKU has embarked on a project to assess the differences between care recommended in the European Guidelines on the treatment for PKU- and the reality in care delivered in European Countries. We wish to identify gaps between the two if they exist. The findings will be analysed, peer reviewed and published in a reputable scientific publication. We have developed a questionnaire for all PKU patients/carers to complete. The more responses …
Situation of refugee rare metabolic disorder patients (Updated)
According to UNHCR data, currently there are more than 65.000.000 people fleeing from war, conflicts and persecution, as much as never before in history. About 20.000.000 people left their native countries and seek shelter abroad, most of them in Europe. It is a matter of fact that there are a significant number of people amongst these refugees, who suffer from any diagnosed or even undiagnosed rare disease, such as Phenylketonuria (PKU) or other treatable metabolic disorders. All signatory states of the Convention of the United Nations on the rights of persons with disabilities are committed “to take all necessary measures …
The forgotten children
A touching documentary by the German Association for Phenylketonuria and allied inherited disorders (DIG PKU) calls attention to the fate of late diagnosed and untreated patients Phenylketonuria (PKU) is a rare, inherited disorder of protein metabolism. Patients are unable to metabolise the amino acid phenylalanine. Early diagnosed by newborn screening and treated with a low protein diet and an amino acid substitution, patients can develop normally and live their life to the full. In untreated patients, high phenylalanine-levels in the brain cause severe impairments to mental and physical development. Neurological abnormalities such as hyperactivity, aggressiveness and lack of concentration, fitting …
PKU Day Website launched
We are happy to announce the launch of the new PKUDay.org website. PKU Day is coming up June 28th. For this year we have planned some special events and hope that everybody will take part in. Spreading the word about Phenylketonuria (PKU) is important. International PKU Day gives us the chance to promote PKU and make it known better. Please help by sharing the website and social media accounts of International PKU Day. The biggest event for this year will be the “Robert Guthrie Memorial Dinner”. Read all about it on the PKUDay Website.
Call for Papers
Dear professionals, We would like to announce that we created a form where you can upload your abstract for the E.S.PKU conference 2016 in Dublin, Ireland. You can view the submission form here: – Submission Closed -. Submissions will be forwarded to the Scientific Advisory Committee of E.S.PKU. You can find more information about this years conference on the dedicated conference page. Please take note of the deadline: August 20th – last day of call for papers! Also don’t forget to subscribe to the conference newsletter so you don’t miss out on important updates. If you have questions, you can use …
E.S.PKU 2015 Conference Experiences
We are looking back at a very successful E.S.PKU conference 2015. As you might have seen there are quite a lot of official videos available for our conference 2015 in Berlin, Germany. If you haven’t seen them yet – or want to watch them again – they are all linked on our conference page. There you can also experience a lot more about the conference. But of course there aren’t just our conference experiences, but those of participants. We are happy that this year we had some attendees who brought along their own cameras, blogs, etc. to capture their experience with the …
European Phenylketonuria – PKU Guidelines
The European Guidelines for Phenylketonuria is one of the latest projects funded by E.S.PKU. The project was started after the publication of the consensus paper, written by delegates of E.S.PKU, showing the needs and wishes for guidelines. Under the lead of Professor Francjan J. van Spronsen and E.S.PKU SAC (scientific advisory committee) those independent PKU guidelines have been developed, with the help of about 20 professionals, experts in PKU, over the past three years. At the annual E.S.PKU conference 2015 in Berlin, Germany- excerpts from these guidelines were presented to the professionals as well as parents/patients. One of the main aims of the Guidelines is that they …
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