Ain Shams University continues its participation in the presidential initiative to treat patients with spinal muscular atrophy

Ain Shams University and the Center of Muscular and Neurological Diseases at Ain Shams Specialized Hospital continue operations to inject children with spinal muscular atrophy, within the framework of the humanitarian presidential initiative launched by His Excellency President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, President of the Republic, to treat children with spinal muscular atrophy free of charge at the state’s expense. The two children, Ahmed Ashraf Saad, from Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate, one-year-old, and Mina Sherif Samir, 8 months old, from Minya Governorate, were injected.

Dr. Nagia Ali Fahmy, Director of the Musculoskeletal Diseases Unit and the supervisor of the injection process, said that the two children are injected with the highest-priced gene therapy in the world for one time only.

She added that Musculoskeletal and Neurological Diseases Unit was launched specifically to carry out the task of injecting patients within three centers that came in implementation of the presidential initiative, which is the first of its kind and unique to the Arab Republic of Egypt in the world, due to the high price of treatment, as the cost of one injection is 2.1 million dollars, to be borne by the state to relieve the burdens of Egyptian families.

She added that the medical team at Ain Shams Specialized Hospital is working under the supervision and support of Prof. Dr. Mahmoud El-Metini, President of Ain Shams University, and Prof. Dr. Ayman Saleh, Vice President for Graduate Studies and Research, and Prof. Dr. Ashraf Omar, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Chairman of the University Hospitals Board of Directors, and Prof. Dr. Ali Al-Anwar, Executive Director of Ain Shams University Hospitals, and Prof. Dr. Hani Aref, Head of the Department of Neurology and Prof. Dr. Walid Anwar, director of Ain Shams Specialized Hospital.

She pointed out that the injection process is carried out in cooperation with an integrated team of doctors from the Musculoskeletal Diseases Unit, the infection control team, the clinical pharmacy team, and the nursing staff at Ain Shams Specialized Hospital, and in cooperation with Novartis Egypt.

It is noteworthy that the Musculoskeletal and Neurological Diseases Unit, which was established 25 years ago in Ain Shams Medicine, was able to provide services that were not available in the diagnosis and treatment of clinical and genetic examinations.

The unit seeks to make Egypt a center for research and clinical and clinical trials on genetic and hereditary diseases, to be included within the presidential initiatives to care for public health and implement Egypt’s vision 2030.