Awareness stressed to contain spread of thalassemia

PESHAWAR: Frontier Foundation chairman Sahibzada Muhammad Haleem said on Tuesday that thalassemia could be completely eradicated from Pakistan if patients and their families undergo medical tests before marriage and avoid inter-family marriages.

Addressing a function held in connection with raising awareness about the thalassemia, prevention and taking precautionary steps against the disease, he said that their mission was to educate patients suffering from hereditary blood disorders and their families to control these diseases.

He said that the genetic diseases like thalassemia, haemophilia and other blood-related disorders were spreading fast owing to lack of awareness among the people.He said that their organisation was holding workshops, walks, seminars and conferences to raise awareness regarding the blood-related diseases.

Sahibzada Haleem said that their organisation was striving hard to contain the spread of thalassemia through awareness campaigns and provide free treatment facilities to the patients suffering from the blood disorders.

On this occasion, Frontier Foundation Administrator Dr Fakhar Zaman talked about the importance of precautionary measures and testing, particularly in cousin marriages. He explained that when two thalassemia carriers marry, there was a 25 percent chance of having a child with thalassemia major, a 50 percent chance of the child being a carrier, and a 25 percent chance of the child being normal during each pregnancy.

“The Frontier Foundation Hematology Services Hospital is providing round-the-clock free treatment facilities to the patients of thalassemia and haemophilia in Peshawar, Kohat and Swat,” the administrator said, adding millions of rupees were being spent on the treatment of patients by providing Factor-8 and Factor-9 injections.