Experts plea for eczema treatment
My oldest boy Harry just rocks back & forward. It’s devastating what this did KAREN
DERMATOLOGISTS have called for access to life-changing treatment for eczema sufferers.
The Irish Skin Foundation urged the HSE management to make available (dupilumab) to hundreds of people living with severe atopic eczema.
It added these patients need access to the new treatment which has been available to elsewhere in Europe.
ISF spokesman Paul Herriott said: “I urge HSE management to allow people with eczema their fair share of access to new medications and a future without the ongoing ordeal and guess work of daily management.”
THE mum of three sons born with serious birth defects linked to an epilepsy drug yesterday called for an independent inquiry and a State apology.
Karen Keely’s adult children are now in their 20s and 30s and two of them require ongoing care after they were exposed to valproate.
The HSE estimates around 1,250 children here suffered developmental disorders between 1975 and 2015, while 3,100 were potentially exposed to the drug.
Many pregnant mums were never made aware of the risks associated with sodium valproate or epilim as it is also commonly called.
Karen, the chair of the Organisation for Anti-convulsant Syndrome, said: “I set up the organisation because I needed to find families because I felt so alone and there was nobody to talk to. I needed to talk to another mother.
“We have to look into our children’s eyes, every single day.
“My oldest boy Harry, he rocks back and forward. It’s devastating what this drug has done to him.”
Karen learned that valproate was linked to her sons’ developmental disorders in the early 2000s.
More than 70 families are now attached to the organisation.
Karen and her partner Kevin Douglas live with Lorcan and Lee in Ratoath, Co Meath, while Harry lives in residential care in Dublin.
Karen, 51, contributed to a landmark UK report on the damage caused by the drugs. The study has advised an apology should be made by the British state.
She added: “There’s two things we desperately want announced in the coming days – an independent inquiry and an apology to put the families and us at ease, to let us know that our own Government cares.
“Over the course of two years, the Cumberlege investigation gathered hundreds of hours of testimony and thousands of pages of evidence in reaching its conclusion that the British government apologise for the historical failings.
“An independent inquiry is now paramount here in Ireland and the only vehicle that can provide answers to the many questions families have regarding the historical use of the drug in Ireland.”
Children exposed to sodium valproate in the womb
Mr Donnelly suffered developmental disorders in up to 40% of cases, while 10% had congenital malformations.
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly previously vowed to give a “100% commitment” to hold a public inquiry into the scandal.
Sinn Fein TD Rose Conway-walsh said: “Having worked with families in this State impacted by sodium valproate, I think Baroness [Julia] Cumberlege sums up the scandal when she stated, ‘I have never encountered anything like this.
“The intensity of suffering by so many families and the fact they have endured it for decades’.
“The anguish of the mothers I meet is driven by the fact they feel intense guilt at having taken medication that resulted in their child being harmed. “But it was never their fault. They were harmed because the
State failed to protect them.”
KAREN KEELY CAMPAIGNER YESTERDAY
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