MALTA BLEEDING DISORDERS SOCIETY ESTABLISHED

This day marked the launch of the newly set-up |Malta Bleeding Disorders Society (MBDS). The launch of the MBDS took place at Palazzo De Piro in Mdina during a conference that hosted international and national experts in this medical field, and whose aim, apart from practising their profession, is to raise awareness of the needs of patients suffering from such conditions.

Bleeding disorders are rare medical conditions and thus the urgent need to raise awareness and impart information among the Maltese community to ensure a better quality of life to patients suffering from these conditions and to eradicate prejudices and/or mistaken myths about such patients. Patients’ ages vary from new-born children to adults. The most commonly known condition is Haemophilia but several other conditions exist, the manifestations of which differ from one patient to another.

The speakers of the conference were Professor Michael Makris, president of the European Association for Haemophilia and Allied Disorders, Jo Eerens from the European Haemophilia Consortium, as well as Dr James Gauci, medical doctor and visiting assistant lecturer at the University of Malta. The conference was organised and chaired by Professor Alexander Gatt, consultant haematologist at Mater Dei Hospital, under the sponsorship of Vivian Corporation, distributors in Malta for Pfizer and Roche diagnostics.

The aims of the MBDS are multiple and range from the direct assistance of patients and relatives in the many needs, hardships and challenges that they face in everyday life, to the mobilisation of policymakers in Malta and beyond in order to give better attention and services to the medical and social needs of these patients.

The MBDS is in the last stages of registration with the Commission for Voluntary Organisations and is calling on patients, their relatives and friends to become members of the Society. Membership is free of charge and enrolled members will benefit from the services that the MBDS will be obtaining for the patients and their families/carers.

The MBDS is in the process of registering its membership with the World Federation of Haemophilia and with the European Haemophilia Consortium. This will allow the society to benefit from knowledge transfer, research, good practices, latest updates in medical aspects and to facilitate interaction of patients with other patients abroad.

The MBDS was founded on Saturday, 2 March with the first elected committee: president – Dr James Gauci; secretary – Dr Jonathan Gauci; treasurer – Rev. Can. David Cilia; medical advisor – Prof. Alexander Gatt and members’ representative – Jacqueline Cilia.