05 June 2024
By IFPA
This year’s World Health Assembly was special for IFPA and for the whole psoriatic disease community.
Ten years ago, in the same arena, the community welcomed resolution WHA 67.9, which recognized psoriasis as a serious non-communicable disease. This important milestone for our community was celebrated with a side-event at the margins of WHA77, titled “A decade of action since the World Health Assembly resolution on psoriasis – what’s next?”, hosted by IFPA, in collaboration with the International Psoriasis Council (IPC) and the International League of Dermatological Societies (ILDS)
Frida Dunger (IFPA’s Executive Director), Christy Langan (CEO of IPC), and Claire Fuller (board of directors of ILDS) opened the side event highlighting the importance of the resolution for the psoriatic disease community from the perspective of their organizations of medical professionals. The resolution could not have been possible without the efforts of the Permanent Missions of Panama, Argentina, Ecuador, and Qatar, championing the resolutions. Their efforts were recognized and awarded at the side-event.
Dr José Ruiz-Postigo, Medical Officer for the Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) Programme at the World Health Organization (WHO) delivered an inspiring talk on how platforms and programs for NTDs can deliver care for those people living with other diseases affecting primarily the skin, such as psoriatic disease. Moreover, he announced that skin conditions are going to be included in the WHO’s Global Health Observatory, with psoriasis being one of the few diseases included in the category. Dr Postigo recognized the need of publishing recurrent reports on psoriasis, on the model of that published in 2016 by WHO, to keep member states and stakeholders informed and pushing for change.
Kathleen L. Gallant and Josef de Guzman, IFPA board members who worked tirelessly to ensure the resolution was adopted 10 years ago, recalled their advocacy journey and the impact of the resolution on psoriatic disease care for policies at the national level and for individuals living with psoriatic disease.
A panel discussion with Prof. Swen Malte John, prof. Matthias Augustin and Prof. Ulrich Mrowietz reflected on the scientific progress of psoriatic disease since 2014. They stressed the burden of comorbidities, the new evidence on the widespread stigma, and why the community is now talking about “psoriatic disease” to stress the complexity of a disease that, just 10 years ago, was unknown to WHO member states and was considered as a mere cosmetic issue by many.
Despite the progress made in the past decade, all panelists agreed that more is needed to improve the lives of those living with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, leveraging the leap forward in knowledge of the disease and its burden, and the experience of policies implemented at the national level. The side-event closed with a concrete call to action: the community needs this evidence to be available to WHO member states, so that they can form evidence-based policies for psoriatic disease as part of their efforts to fight noncommunicable diseases in their countries. A new report on psoriatic disease needs to be published, to make new knowledge and best practices available to all.
Besides the IFPA/IPC/ILDS side-event, IFPA joined the global health discussion by participating in other side-events on mental health, cardiovascular disease, noncommunicable diseases, and skin diseases. With this participation, IFPA strengthened its position within the noncommunicable disease agenda and made the patient's voice heard.
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