screening tests; access to new research protocols and treatment, including transfusion therapy, new chelation therapy, stem-cell transplantation, and hormone replacement; and risk of heart disease, osteoporosis, and hepatitis.
Rizvi said more than 5,000 blood bags would be collected for thalassaemia patients at the Expo Centre event.
He said not only around 100,000 people were suffering from thalassaemia in Pakistan but more worrisome thing was that about 10 million people were carriers of this deadly disease in the country and unaware about this fact. He said 70 per cent of blood collection in Pakistan was used on treatment of this disease. He pointed out that marriages on the basis of caste, ‘baradari’ and inter-family marriages were producing 5,000 to 6,000 babies suffering from thalassaemia every year.
He said laws were made in Pakistan but never implemented. Elaborating he said though the government of Pakistan has passed a law that the bride and groom has to have a test to ascertain if they were carriers of thalassaemia but a strategy to implement the law in letter and spirit was lacking. The federal and provincial government was always lukewarm to implement the law, he added.
He said lack of awareness among the masses was one of the reasons for the spread of thalassaemia in the country. He said about 90 per cent of people in the country were ignorant about thalassaemia in the country.
Citing the examples of Iran and Italy, he said through collective efforts these countries have totally eliminated the deadly disease. “We too can eliminate thalassaemia though joint efforts,” he said.
He said Help International Welfare Trust would raise awareness amongst the people to voluntarity donate blood after every three to four months and dispel the impression that donating blood makes one weak. At the Expo Centre on March 29, he said specialists from different arena would give informed information to people. He said students of medical and other universities would participate in seminars held at the occasion and it would be the endeavour of Help International Welfare Trust to involve the government as well.