Delegation Visits to Turkey – April & May 2017

The Turkish Thalassaemia Federation held the “3rd Thalassaemia and other Haemoglobinopathies Congress”, on 6 April 2017 in Antalya. This was a well attended, conference especially with a lot of patient interest. It was also attended by 4 TIF delegates (Michael Angastiniotis, Dimitrios Farmakis, Ahmet Varogly and Duru Malyali).

During this event, elections were held by the Federation, which re-elected Mr Burhan Kerimoglu as president. TIF re-stated its full support for all the educational and advocacy events in Turkey, where services are generally good.

In addition, the 2nd International Kan Film Festival was held in Adana, Turkey, between 5-7 May 2017. This festival has as its main objective the sensitisation of the public to blood donation and the needs of haemoglobinopathy patients.

The event was organised by the ATODER group whose president is Mr Ali Kilinc. TIF supported this event by the presence of its Board Members, Mr George Constantinou and Mr Duru Malyali, and Mr Ahmed Varoglu, TIF Expert Patient. This too was a highly publicised and successful event.

Turkey is a country that has, for some years now, prioritised thalassaemia on its national agenda and has adopted TIF’s Guidelines providing high-quality care to the majority of its patients, albeit more is needed in the context of networking for all services to reach every patient, mainly the rural areas.