LARKANA: A total number of registered thalassaemia patients have reached to 853 with the addition of six new cases at the Chandka Medical College Hospital’s (CMCH)Thalassaemia Centre in Larkana, which was previously 847.
The 12-bed Thalassaemia Centre is still lacking essential facilities since its establishment in 2011 despite the fact that the number of registered patients is constantly rising.
CMCH Medical Superintendent Dr Inayatullah Kandhro told media that a letter had been sent to the Larkana Division commissioner wherein it had been informed that the centre was running at the Paeds Medicine Department which had been facing a lot of problems, especially shortage of trained staff, provision of required blood to the affected patients.
Dr Kandhro said that the commissioner had been requested to convey the request to the Fatimid Foundation to look after the CMCH Thalassaemia Centre on humanitarian grounds. He further said Fatimid Foundation authorities had made a commitment that they would not only provide blood and medicines to the affected poor patients along with other required facilities but they had also assured to train medics at the centre.
Sindh Thalassaemia Act must also be implemented in letter and spirit which was passed by the provincial assembly in 2013, he stressed.
Duty doctors and paramedics said that averagely 25 to 30 patients arrive mostly with their mothers to get treatment daily.
A senior doctor told reporters on the condition of anonymity that there are only two countries in the world which are Thalassaemia-free, one is Iran and another is Italy where HB electrophoresis is mandatory and the test report is to be presented before marriage to control this menace.
The senior doctor requested the Sindh government to implement legislation passed in this regard in the province to stop an emergence of a huge number of cases of the disease.
