BENGALURU: The eighth edition of RaceFor7, an awareness walk for treating patients with rare diseases, is being organised after a gap of two years in Bengaluru on February 26.
The awareness walk/run aims to raise awareness for people suffering from rare diseases and to advocate better policies and access to treatment for patients with rare diseases. The 7-km run symbolises the 7,000 known rare diseases across the world.
Organisation for Rare Diseases India (ORDI) estimated that on an average, it takes seven years to diagnose a rare disease further adding that 70 million Indians suffer from such diseases.
ORDI co-founder and executive director Prasanna Kumar Shirol said, “RaceFor7 is one of the largest multi-city events in the city to raise mass awareness. It aims to create awareness and the need of preventive measures to contain rare diseases such as consanguineous (inter-family) marriages, prenatal tests and informed decisions about childbirth, newborn screenings, precision healthcare and innovation.
Besides Bengaluru, the event is being held in 12 other cities, with Davanagere, Mysuru, Ahmedabad, and Mumbai being few of them.