Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) has diagnosed around 160 new cases of Thalassaemia Major during the last four years. A Thalassaemia Centre was already working at Children Hospital in PIMS and providing blood transfusion service free of cost.

An official at Capital Administration and Development Division on Monday said having one ward with 13 beds, the Centre has also facility of Bone Marrow Transplant and patients counselling services on thalassaemia. The official said there is no centre for Thalassaemia control in Federal Government Service Hospital Polyclinic. However, the hospital provides emergency transfusion services for Thalassaemia patients.

He said 277 patients have been transfused for Thalassaemia by Paediatric Department of the hospital during last one year.Regarding treatments available at present for the disease, he said these are traditional and bone-marrow transplantation. The traditional treatment consists of three patterns including blood transfusion which is one of the most regularly practiced.

Today, most patients with a major form of Thalassaemia receive red blood cell transfusions every two to three weeks. The other traditional treatments are Splenectomy (Removing the Spleen) and Desferal under which blood transfusions bring extra iron into the body and if

transfusions are regular, iron gradually accumulates in the body. A Thalassemic’s bone marrow is not able to make a normal amount of red blood cells. If the malfunctioning bone marrow can be replaced with a normal bone marrow, this problem is solved.