Pragmatic steps urged to check thalassaemia

PESHAWAR, May 2: Speakers at a seminar on Monday urged the government to take pragmatic steps to control the spread of thalassaemia to save the new generation from the fatal disease. The seminar was held under the auspices of Thalassaemia Prevention Project (TPP) at Khyber Medical College, wherein the experts called for making joint efforts to prevent the fatal disease. They asked the lawmakers to play role in this connection. On the occasion, the Thalassaemia Week was formally launched in collaboration with College of Pathology of Pakistan (CPP). Prominent speakers included chief executive TPP Prof Dr Abd-ul-Hameed, Organising Committee Thalassaemia chairman Mohammad Nisar Khan, CPP regional director Dr Tahir, Society for the Thalassaemia Education and Prevention (STEP) patron-in-chief Prof Dr Abd-ul-Mateen and Frontier Foundation chief executive Sahibzada Haleem. Additional secretary health Zahir Alam was the chief guest. The experts said thalassaemia was a genetic disease, and about two million children were suffering from thalassaemia minor in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa only, adding, if precautionary measures were not taken, it would further increase. They asked the government to take necessary steps for the prevention of the fatal disease before its spread into safe areas. They said the poor people were more affected from thalassaemia as compared to the rich people, saying that most of them hailed from rural areas who did not know its causes. Before entering into nuptial life, a couple should be compelled for blood screening to ensure protection to the new generation. They said unless the government devised a comprehensive plan for prevention of the disease, 'we could not succeed in prevention and eradication of the ailment'. Criticising the health department, Prof Dr Abd-ul-Hameed said there was no plan with the department to mitigate the health related problems of the masses and urged the high ups to devise a proper planning so that thalassaemia could be prevented. Several proposals were given on the first day of the week by the representatives of different organisations working on thalassaemia. They said awareness should be created among the people and that capacity building of the technical workers of the organisations, joint efforts and launching of a separate FM radio for health was a must. Additional secretary health Zahir Alam said thalassaemia could be prevented and eradicated owing to sincere efforts both by the government and other organisations working on the disease.