Awareness termed crucial to end thalassemia

PESHAWAR: An awareness-raising event on the hereditary blood disorder — thalassemia — was organized at Frontier Foundation Peshawar on Friday.

Thalassemia-affected children and their parents were present at the programme.

Addressing the gathering, Chairman of Frontier Foundation, Sahibzada Muhammad Haleem, said that the organization had been providing free treatment facilities to more than 4,000 registered children suffering from blood disorders at its centers in Peshawar, Kohat, and Swat for the past two decades.

He added that the foundation bears an annual expense of over Rs 80 million for this cause. “We aim to create a Thalassemia-free society, and this can only be achieved by raising public awareness about the causes and prevention of this genetic disease,” he emphasized.

Frontier Foundation Administrator Dr Fakhar Zaman stated that thalassemia was passed from parents to children and that a major cause of its increasing prevalence in society was cousin marriages.

He reiterated the foundation’s long-standing demand that pre-marital thalassemia testing should be made mandatory to secure the future of the coming generations.

Reaffirming the commitment to eradicate thalassemia, he said that cooperation from the government, relevant institutions, and the public was essential in building a thalassemia-free society.