Pfizer Highlights Prevalence and Social Burden of Rheumatoid Arthritis

Sunday Ehigiator

The need for raising awareness about Rheumatology as well as enlightening the public about the management of rheumatoid arthritis to prevent disease progression has been emphasised as Pfizer over the weekend, organised a hybrid media roundtable to highlight the disease’s burden in Nigeria.

Speaking at the event, Rheumatologists with the Lagos State University College of Medicine, and the Lagos University Teaching Hospital Dr Olaosebikan Hakeem, and Dr Uyiekpan Ima-Edomwonyi, respectively interacted with media professionals to share medical insights on the condition alongside the latest clinical advances that seek to achieve better patient outcomes. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disorder that affects the small joints of the body.

According to Ima-Edomwonyi, “Rheumatoid arthritis affects the small joints of the hand, wrist, and feet before affecting larger joints and if left untreated can cause deformity and disability. With debilitating symptoms that include pain and stiffness, people with Rheumatoid arthritis are seen to have lower functional status.

“This disability can lead to a loss of career and sources of income, which is a particular problem in low-income settings. For a certain subset of the population, jobs in Africa involve a level of manual labour and the resource-starved African states can afford only limited or no welfare support for disabled individuals.”

Dr Ima-Edomwonyi added that, along with the increase in non–communicable diseases (NCD) in developing countries, an increase in Rheumatoid arthritis occurrence could stress medical services that are already struggling with a high burden of acute infectious illness to an extent that they may be unable to cope with the fast-changing patterns of disease distribution seen in Africa today.

“However, healthcare professionals, general physicians and rheumatologists need to identify Rheumatoid arthritis early and commence appropriate therapy as soon as possible,” he said.

In his submission, Dr Hakeem noted that the treatment of Rheumatoid arthritis is ideally done as soon as possible when the patient starts with disease symptoms, but at any stage, the aim is to get the disease into remission or to have minimal signs and symptoms.

“This is to decrease the progression of joint disease as the disease process can cause progressive damage to joints with resultant loss of function, which in many patients, will mean that they are unable to fulfil work obligations or cope with activities at home.

“Adequate treatment is also important to try to prevent or lessen the severity of co-morbidities, particularly cardiovascular disease, which is still a major cause of mortality in these patients. Apart from treating rheumatoid disease, the patient should ideally be treated by a multidisciplinary team to address many other associations of this disease, ranging from psychological help with anxiety and depression to guidance with physical therapy by physiotherapists or biokineticists and help with activities of daily living by occupational therapists.”

Earlier, Country Medical Director, Pfizer East and West Africa, Dr Kodjo Soroh, said, “Rheumatoid arthritis remains one of the region’s most common rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs). However, there is hope, and we aim to continue raising awareness around the treatments available today. 

“We want to work closely with the healthcare community to ensure early diagnosis, increased patient access and medication adherence. There is Project Afya, a patient assistance program that improves access to life-saving medications and boosts cancer care and autoimmune disease management.

“In partnership with IQVIA, the platform is helping to reduce therapy costs for eligible patients as Rheumatologists identify patients for enrolment into the program.”