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Are rheumatic diseases the same in the Western and the Eastern world? This is a major question for physicians because the majority of textbooks come from the Western world and all the figures and statistics and the clinical picture of diseases are those seen in the Western world. It is therefore important to know if they are applicable to the Eastern world. The first step is to know how they are distributed in the APLAR region (Asia and Pacific area).

COPCORD (Community Oriented Program for Control of Rheumatic Diseases) was created by the collaboration of World Health Organization (WHO) and the International League of Associations for Rheumatology (ILAR) in 1983. The aim of the program was the recognition, prevention, and the control of Rheumatic diseases in developing countries, where two-thirds of the world’s population live. The program was designed to work with small monetary and material …