The Omair Sana Foundation on Wednesday offered to train the medical and paramedical staffs of the Sindh health department for the screening of Thalassamia Minor free of cost, saying that after 15 days of basic training the staff of the district headquarter of taluka headquarter hospitals and basic health units could be trained to screen healthy persons for Thalassaemia Minor.

He said that Thalasemia Minor tests can be conducted at any basic health unit. The foundation's general secretary, hematologist Saqib Ansari, was addressing a news conference in connection with World Thalassaemia Day on May 8. He said that the marriage between two Thalasemia minor patients increases the risk of Thalasemia Major by 65 percent. Dr Ansari said children with Thalassemia were dying due to lack of blood donations, and the only option left is prevention of Thalassaemia through screening.

He asked the government to include the subject of Thalassaemia in marriage certificates as well as the National Identity Card. Certificates of inter-marrying blood relations could be cancelled to prevent births of more Thalassaemic children. Dr Ansari said that according to conservative estimates, 15,000 to 20,000 children are born with the disease every year in Pakistan, and that at least 100,000 children in the country are suffering from the disease. The disease would be controlled if the government allocated Rs 9 billion for prevention of Thalasemia for two consecutive years, he said, giving an estimate.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2017