The Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Chelation: Application of Effective Chelation Therapies in Iron Loading and Non Iron Loading Conditions, and the Gap in the Prevention and Treatment Policies on Thalassemia Between Developed and Developing Countries

Abstract

Substantial progress in the use of chelating drugs for the treatment of iron overload and of non iron loading conditions has been presented during the 17th International Conference on Chelation (ICOC) held in November 2007 at Shenzhen, China. Major challenges lie ahead for the prevention and treatment of thalassemia in China, India, Thailand, Indonesia and many other developing countries where millions of heterozygote thalassemia carriers live and thousands of homozygote thalassemia patients are born annually. The progressive improvement of the economic climate in developing countries will increase the demand and resources for more prenatal and antenatal diagnoses, transfusions and chelation therapy in forthcoming years. Despite the major advances in diagnosis and treatment in developed countries, the vast majority of thalassemia patients in developing countries die untreated because they cannot afford the cost of transfusions and chelation therapy. New approaches and infrastructures and more efforts are needed to overcome the difficulties of supplying new techniques and treatments to patients in developing countries. International and local organizations need to be persuaded to act collectively and effectively to improve chelation and related treatments for thalassemia and other conditions, especially at this time that universally effective and inexpensive chelation therapies can be applied.

Keywords:

• Thalassemia
• Epidemiological data
• Ethical issues
• Optimal therapies
• Non iron loading conditions
• Deferiprone (L1)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank the authors and reviewers, and in particular, Drs. S-Y. Ha (Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Queen Mary Hospital, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China) and C-T Peng (Department of Pediatrics, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan) for assisting in the coordination of the 17th ICOC proceedings, Dr. C-G. Li (Department of Hematology and Oncology, Shenzhen Children's Hospital, Guangdong, China) and other members of the local organizing committee, the members of the ICOC and other scientific committees, the participants and all others who contributed to the successful organization of the conference in Shenzhen, China and the production of the proceedings of the 17th ICOC.

Declaration of Interest: The author report no conflicts of interest. The author alone is responsible for the content and writing of this article.