“Our fellow human beings with rare diseases put up a heroic fight every day! Today’s World Rare Disease Day therefore underlines the duty we have as a State to help them overcome the obstacles they face and to improve, as much as we can, their daily life, so that they are not left behind. Not in words, in deed!” notes the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, Kostis Hatzidakis, in a message on his personal social media account.

Also, Mr. Hatzidakis mentions the following:

“Rare diseases, estimated at 6-8,000, affect 5 out of 10,000 people, are characterized by high heterogeneity and are mostly genetic in nature (autoimmune diseases, congenital malformations, etc.).

In the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs we are partly responsible for policies for rare patients.

Our fellow people with rare diseases benefit from some of our reforms for people with disabilities, such as Digital PES and the Digital Disability Card.

In particular, however, a year ago, with the law on the modernization of the EFKA, we gave the possibility to parents of children up to 18 years old, who suffer from rare diseases, with a percentage of 67% and above, to receive 10 additional days of leave with earnings.

Certainly, there is more we can do for patients with rare diseases. But everyone recognizes that, in the last almost four years, our disabled people have acquired a series of tools that significantly reduce their suffering, and in this direction we will move forward, because the policy for disabled people is an indicator of culture for our society!”.