‘Genetics Matters to Everyone’: Only healthy children can become athletes: speakers

LAHORE : The symposium on ‘Genetics Matters to Everyone’ brought together cricket and hockey stars of yesteryears.

Misbahul Haq, former captain cricket team of Pakistan, Stefan Blocher, former German hockey player and Siegfried Aikman, Pakistan national hockey coach were there as ambassadors of genetics.

Misbahul Haq is trying to help children born with congenital heart disease. He represents Pakistan Children Heart Foundation that works for them. He informed the audience that one child out of 100 is born with congenital heart disease and 60,000 people are born with heart disease every year in Pakistan. He said there are only eight pediatric cardiac surgeons here 30 cardiologists who could help these children.

Stefan Blocher said only healthy children can become athletes and thanked his parents for their help.

Siegfried Aikman said, “One of our players has lost two sons and one son is under treatment. We need to break the chain, make knowledge available to everyone. I treat my hockey team as family. Their health is important. I do not want negative influence. My dream is to bring hockey to where it was in Pakistan.

Prof Arndt Rolf’s from Germany, CEO and founder Arcensus who has been collaborating with Pakistan for more than 15 years said Pakistan has the largest number of consanguine marriages in the world. This has resulted in genetic disorders. “You have to stop cousin marriages,” he said. He said the first step is clinical screening by a person who has been trained in that. We are bringing technology but merging clinical expertise with technology is most important. Education, knowledge, is much more important than machine,” he said. His mission, he said, is to make lives of his patients better. Cousin marriage is a big burden for Pakistan. Minimum 15-16 million children are suffering from genetic diseases. They are a burden on family, the healthcare system and on the society,” he said. WHO says genetic diseases are causing 12-14 percent damage to Pakistan’s economy.