Delhi state government takes a step forward for rare diseases

New Delhi: As an important step towards expediting the process of providing treatment to rare disease patients, the Delhi state government, in the High Court, has proposed the setting up of a Technical cum Administrative Committee for rare diseases.

It will also set up a state corpus for the treatment of rare disorders. The government of India has allocated Rs. 100 crore corpus for these disorders under the national policy for rare diseases and would contribute funds towards the states in the ratio of 60:40.

One of the significant mandates of the committee includes identification and accreditation of institutions which will carry out the diagnosis and treatment of rare conditions. Moreover, there will also be a Rare Disease Board and will review the patient applications and handle other technical details.

The same would then be forwarded to the state technical committee which will accordingly decide upon the funding of a particular patient. The applications which the state board will review would be submitted to a website which is being created by the central government as a part of the national policy.