Center for Unknown Diseases opened

„Center for Unrecognized Diseases“ opens in Marburg in December

28/11/2013

New hope for patients with previously unexplained symptoms: At the University of Marburg in December the „Center for Unrecognized Diseases“ opened, in which doctors want to focus specifically on the diagnosis of mysterious symptoms. For sick people, who may already have had a year-long, fruitless odyssey from doctor to doctor, the new facility could finally help. So far, those affected were often left to their own devices, because „People with rare or unrecognized illnesses do not fit in a single drawer“, said the director of the center, Prof. Jürgen Schäfer, on Wednesday in Marburg at the presentation of the institution opposite the dpa.

Complex disease patterns require an interdisciplinary team
The disease is complex for many sufferers, the physician continues, so it is necessary that an interdisciplinary team of doctors deal with the cases. In Marburg, for this reason, ten physicians from different disciplines start work in December, which according to Schäfer it is possible to examine 70 to 80 cases a month.

About four million people are affected
Rare diseases are a widespread phenomenon, according to Prof. Schäfer could be assumed in Germany of about four million sufferers. Unfortunately, they have often been left alone with their inexplicable complaints: „It often happens that patients are pushed into the psychiatric area, that they say 'well we can not find anything, then there's nothing'. The question is: Do we not find anything because there is nothing or do we find nothing because we did not look right? And if the latter is the case, then of course it's a tragedy“, so Prof. Schäfer opposite the „hr-Hessenschau“. (No)

Picture: Gerd Altmann