Turkish doctors discover cure for CHAPLE syndrome

By Burak Dag

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish doctors from Istanbul’s Marmara University discovered a cure for CHAPLE syndrome, a newly discovered deadly childhood disease.

Dr. Ahmet Oguzhan Ozen and his team from the school’s Faculty of Medicine will go down in history for finding a treatment for the disease that they were first to diagnose in 2017.

CHAPLE syndrome is seen in early childhood with intestinal complaints, including stomach aches, diarrhea, vomiting and has complications such as vascular occlusions and frequent infections that can cause death.

Ozen and his team’s success were cited by the prestigious Nature Immunology medical journal.

Dr. Ozen said, "It [CHAPLE syndrome] appears with low albumin and intestinal complaints. Patients frequently apply to the hospital for albumin treatment. But later, structural disorders develop in the vessels and the blood tends to clot too much," according to a statement from Marmara University. "Severe vascular occlusion can occur even in childhood. Unfortunately, many patients die early due to these complications.”

He said his team has been working hard for five years to find the cause of the disease and as a result of their intensive work, they found a drug, Eculizumab, which is 100% effective.