Annually since 2008, on the last day of February, Rare Disease Day is celebrated.
The main purpose of the Day is to raise awareness among public opinion and decision-makers about rare diseases and their impact on the lives of patients and families
Launched as a European event, the campaign has gradually become a worldwide phenomenon and the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development has also recently participated by sending a message on this occasion.
The message, by His Eminence Card. Peter K. A. Turkson, Prefect of the Dicastery, was published on 28 February on the theme: “Show Your Rare. Show You Care!”.
“With reference to genetic diseases” – wrote Cardinal Turkson in the text – “we speak of ’orphan’ diseases, and often only the sick themselves give voice to it organizing themselves in specialized associations. But while diseases and drugs may be “orphans”, we cannot leave people as orphans. Every patient must be welcomed and loved and no illness must condemn him to abandonment and marginalization. Jesus Himself taught us that the human person is always precious, always endowed with a dignity that nothing and no one can erase, not even disease.”