LIVING WITH CF IN EUROPE… TODAY AND TOMORROW

Living with CF in Latvia

Doctors in Latvia are not interested in CF because the disease is uncurable and patients die… We have only 29 alive patients, the youngest is 6 months, the oldest 24 years old. About 8 babies should be born each year with CF, but we were only able to diagnose 1 in 2 years! We have no newborn screening, problems with the sweat test and doctors mostly don’t (want to) think of this diagnosis.

We don’t have a CF centre. Patients come to me, the only CF doctor in Latvia, for control. They get most essential medicines for free and antibiotics in the hospital. The last 12 years colleagues from the Stockholm CF centre in Sweden have assisted us, so we were able to get some knowledge about CF.

We need help to organize a system for diagnosis and treatment, but the authorities here are not interested in CF and even don’t know the needs of the patients. A father of a CF child who set up the Latvian CF Association told me about your meeting. We hope that this CF Day will make people aware and maybe help us to get the necessary support through the EP and the EC.

Sincerely yours,
Vija Svabe,
only CF doctor in Latvia

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