KARACHI: Experts at a press briefing on Thursday said thalassaemia was spreading in Pakistan at an alarmingly rate, which could be gauged from the fact that at least 6,000 children were born suffering from the deadly disease every year and billions of rupees were being spent on the treatment of thalassaemia patients.

“There are around 100,000 children with thalassaemia in Pakistan on whose treatment we are spending Rs800 million every month, a little less than Rs10 billion a year,” said Dr Saqib Hussain Ansari , secretary of the Omair Sana Foundation, while addressing a press briefing at his office in Gulshan-i-Iqbal.

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He proposed to the government that an effective thalassaemia prevention programme worth Rs9 billion a year could help the country control the disease and save billions of rupees that otherwise would be spent in future on the treatment.

“Treating children with thalassaemia is one thing, but prevention is something that we need the most as it will save children from being inflicted with the disease in future, thus their population would decrease and our national exchequer will prosper.”

He demanded full implementation of the thalassaemia bill passed by the Sindh Assembly 18 months ago, which makes it mandatory for marrying couples to go for a test to ascertain thalassaemia in them. If both spouses carry thalassaemia minor, it increases the possibility of their children carrying thalassaemia major, which has life-threatening symptoms.

Dr Ansari announced that his organisation would launch a 15-day awareness campaign starting from Friday (today) to raise awareness of thalassaemia among people.

The campaign would include blood screening camps and walks in the city.

He demanded that the government mention the status of thalassaemia in the national identity cards (CNICs) and ensure free of charge thalassaemia tests across the country.

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2015

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