News Media Home | Hopkins Medicine Home
November 11, 1994
Media Contact:Michael Purdy
Phone: (410) 955-8725
E-mail:
MPurdy@welchlink.welch.jhu.edu
Experts from The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions and the Paget's Foundation
will host an informational meeting on Paget's disease on November 19. The
meeting, which is open to the public, will present information on symptoms of
and treatments for Paget's, which is the second most-common bone disease but
often goes unrecognized and untreated until serious symptoms occur.
Paget's can deform the legs, skull, or hips, inflicting pain, loss of hearing,
or loss of mobility.
"Relatively few persons with Paget's develop symptoms this severe," says
Michael Levine, M.D., a Hopkins professor of medicine. "But in this case an
ounce of prevention is worth 10 pounds of cure, because Paget's is much easier
to control before it becomes serious."
At the meeting, organizers will give patients the information they need to
recognize Paget's in its early stages, request appropriate testing and
treatment, and prevent serious problems.
Experts estimate that 100,000 people have been diagnosed with Paget's, but fear
that the actual number of sufferers could range as high as seven times that
number. As the average age of the population increases, the number of Paget's
sufferers is also expected to increase.
Doctors are not sure of Paget's cause, but suspect a viral infection in the
affected bones.
The public meeting will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. in the Tilghman
Room of the Turner Auditorium on the Hopkins Medical Institutions campus. There
is no fee for the meeting, but pre-registration is required. To register, call
(410) 955-7233.