Professor Luo Xiaoping, head of the Endocrine Genetic Metabolism Group of the Pediatrics Branch of the Chinese Medical Association and director of the Department of Pediatrics at Wuhan Tongji Hospital, recently called for many children with dwarfism in China not to be adequately diagnosed and treated, and parents should look at growth hormone correctly so that children with dwarfism can be treated correctly.
“According to a sample survey, the prevalence of dwarfism in China is about 3%, and among all dwarf population, there are about 7 million children aged 4 to 15 who need treatment. However, at present, less than 300,000 patients visit hospitals each year in China, and less than 30,000 patients actually receive treatment, and short stature diseases are not adequately diagnosed and treated.” Professor Luo Xiaoping provided such a set of data.
To detect the first signs of short stature early, parents should observe their child’s growth rate. If a child gains less than 7 cm per year before the age of 2, less than 5 cm per year between the age of 4 and puberty, and less than 6 cm per year during puberty, it is time to be alert.
At present, many parents do not know that short stature is a disease, let alone that it can be treated; or they believe in fake height increasing drugs, while they are afraid of regular treatment methods, such as fear of using recombinant human growth hormone treatment.
Professor Luo Xiaoping said that many parents have “growth hormone phobia”, thinking that hormones will definitely cause fat, ugly, endocrine disorders and other adverse reactions, and some even refuse to receive treatment. In fact, the chemical structure of recombinant human growth hormone is the same as that of the growth hormone naturally secreted by the human body, and it has more definite curative effects on all kinds of growth retardation, while there are no adverse effects of promoting epiphyseal closure and early sexual development, and many countries have approved this drug for promoting height growth of children.
Growth hormone has been used in clinical practice for more than 50 years, and the production process has developed to the 5th generation, and its effectiveness and safety have been greatly improved.
Due to the long treatment time for dwarfism and the need for daily injections of recombinant human growth hormone, the complicated production process and high cost of the drug, as well as the high price of imported products, make the financial burden of the families of affected children heavy, which is also one of the reasons for the low treatment rate of dwarfism.
Although the national authorities included the cost of treating dwarfism caused by growth hormone deficiency in children into the scope of medical insurance reimbursement in 2007, the implementation situation varies from place to place, and the economic pressure still remains high for ordinary families. Therefore, it is important to choose better quality and less expensive growth hormone in order to achieve better treatment results and reduce the financial burden of patients.
Finally, experts remind that short stature may also be caused by some genetic metabolic diseases or other causes, and children need to go to a regular hospital for examination and diagnosis before treatment.