The number of patients with ulcerative colitis in Japan is reported to be 77,073 (based on the number of medical care beneficiary certificates issued for specified diseases in 2002). And the number of patients is increasing by approximately 5,000 every year. Incidentally, there are 1 million patients in the United States.
In Japan, ulcerative colitis (about 80,000 patients) and Parkinson’s disease (about 70,000 patients), out of 121 specified diseases, together account for about 30% of the total number of patients. Therefore, it seems that at one time there was talk of reducing public expenditures for these two diseases.
There are probably a large number of patients who have not been issued a specific disease medical care beneficiary certificate. If we include those with mild symptoms and those who have not applied for the certificate because it is too troublesome to receive it, the number may be doubled to 150,000.
The number of patients does not seem to be decreasing according to the graph of the Intractable Disease Information Center, unless some drastic measures are developed in the future, the number will continue to increase.
I hope we can do something to stop this momentum.