Man with rare skin condition calls for Australian treatment to be made available in Wales

A man from Caldicot is calling for a medicine to treat a rare condition he suffers from to be made available in Wales.

James Rawnsey suffers from a rare skin disease called Erythropoietic Protoporphyria (EPP) that causes a sensitivity to light.

It is thought there are only around 15 to 20 people in Wales with the condition.

James said an Australian pharmaceutical company has developed a treatment that enables people with the condition to lead a normal life, but it is not offered in Wales.

The treatment is a medicine called afamelanotide or Scenesse.

The British Porphyria Association are calling for more to be done to help people with EPP.

The All Wales Medicines Strategy Group (AWMSG) decided not to recommend using Scenesse in Wales, because it said it was not cost-effective.

What is EPP?

The word ‘erythropoietic’ means associated with red blood cells (‘erythro-’) and their formation (‘-poietic’).

The porphyrias are a group of uncommon diseases caused by something going wrong with the production of chemicals known as porphyrins.

These chemicals are the building blocks of haem, which, when combined with a protein (globin), forms haemoglobin, the material in red blood cells that carries oxygen round the body. In the case of EPP, there is a build up of one of these porphyrins (protoporphyrin) in the blood, especially in the red blood cells.

This leads to a sensitivity to sunlight.

(British Skin Foundation)