Forum brings attention to myasthenia gravis disease

On Sunday, the 2023 Myasthenia Gravis Public Welfare Forum was held online, attracting about 840,000 viewers.

Organized by the Beijing Aili Myasthenia Gravis Care Center, the forum brought together experts and scholars from China and abroad to discuss the diagnosis, treatment and management of myasthenia gravis (MG); and issued a health report of Chinese myasthenia gravis patients in 2022.

Myasthenia gravis is an autoimmune disease that anyone can be affected by. The patients often find it difficult to see things clearly, make expressions, move their hands and feet, and execute many other simple tasks.

According to the forum participants, with the increasing improvements of medical systems in China, more and more medicine is being used in the treatment of MG and as a result have been included in the medical insurance catalog, enabling more patients to gain hope for their disease to be cured.

Since 2014, the center has issued reports on the situations of MG patients in China six times, showing their experiences, medical burdens and the social support they received, with the aim of promoting an understanding of the illness among the general public and helping improve the quality of patients' lives.

The latest report was made after surveying 1020 people, and supplemented by in-depth interviews with patients, their family members and doctors.

It shows young people are more prone to this disease, with an average onset-age of 29.4. Most of the patients have varying degrees of anxiety or depression.