Homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (HoFH) is an ultra-rare form of a very common, genetic condition, called Familial Hypercholesterolaemia (FH), which compromises the body's ability to remove LDL, or "bad", cholesterol from the blood. This leads to strokes and heart attacks if not diagnosed and treated. As such, COVID-19 and the world's response to it has exacerbated the situation due to diversion of healthcare services and priorities. "It's a lifelong condition that people are born with. Left untreated, patients start to experience cardiovascular events such as heart attacks or strokes by the age of 10 to 12. If left untreated, life expectancy is 18 years and even with treatments such as statins and apheresis the mean life expectancy is 48 years," says Joe Wiley, CEO of Amryt Pharma. While treatments are available, many people have been unable or too scared to go to the hospital during the SARS-C0V-2 pandemic, so, many patients have been unable to access care.
展开▼
