The government must take strict measures to implement the law that could make it mandatory for the marrying couples to undergo thalassaemia, hepatitis C and other blood tests before marriage in order to prevent these deadly diseases among children, said speakers at a seminar organised by Kashif Iqbal Thalassaemia Centre to commemorate the World Thalassaemia Day 2011 at the Federation House.
“The menace of thalassaemia can only be controlled through prevention as its remedy is a life-long pain for the child as well as the parents,” they said. They said that there are currently over 0.1 million thalassaemia major patients in Pakistan as compared to only 1,000 in the UK and approximately 10 percent of Pakistan’s population is estimated to have thalassaemia traits (thalassaemia minor), thus over 1.5 billion carriers in Pakistan.
The speakers said that the presence of over so many thalassaemia major patients and yearly increase of up to 7,000 thalassaemic babies demands prevention measures to eradicate the disease from Pakistan. “With this syndrome, the afflicted families not only suffer a lifelong financial burden, but it also leaves an immense negative impact upon the socio-economic and the health sector of the nation,” they said.
Sindh Health Minister Dr Saghir Ahmed, one of the speakers at the event, said that having realised the rapid increase of thalassaemia-afflicted patients, the provincial government passed a resolution in the Sindh Assembly in its session of October 16, 2009, making it mandatory for youths to have their blood screened before marriage to investigate the gene of thalassaemia.
He said that the government and the social work sector need to launch an awareness-raising campaign and welfare institutions like the Kashif Iqbal Thalassaemia Care Centre Trust (KITCC) can play a vital role to achieve this goal.
The minister said that the establishment of a blood bank and laboratory at the KITCC, where iron-chelation therapy and other essential treatments for thalassaemics are being provided free of charge, was a much-needed move and more philanthropic organisations should come forward to initiate such steps.
Prominent businessman and patron-in-chief of KITCC, SM Muneer appreciated that the lawmakers of Sindh and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa have taken the lead by passing bills making thalassaemia, hepatitis C and other blood tests mandatory before marriage. KITCC Joint Secretary Kashif Mulla said that each year, up to 6,000 children are born with thalassaemia major in Pakistan.
He said that in developed countries, thalassaemia carriers are often identified when they donate their blood or undergo a CBC or blood CP test, but due to a lack of awareness in Pakistan, not all pathologist or doctors can identify such carriers.
