Neurogenetic disorders

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca has announced plans to establish a new hospital in Istanbul that will focus on the treatment of rare diseases, particularly through the application of cell and gene therapies.

Turkey's Health Ministry has sent a letter to the Social Security Institution (SGK), the government's health insurance scheme, to cover all medical expenses for 114 spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) patients in the country, after an 8-month-old baby died due to a lack of financial means, according to daily Habertürk.

An 8-month-old baby with a fatal disease died in the Marmara province of Sakarya on May 22 after a campaign to raise money for the infant's treatment failed to raise enough funds, Doğan News Agency has reported.
  
The boy, Eymen Çapkın, was born with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a genetic disease affecting the part of the nervous system that controls voluntary muscle movement.