Fighting diseases ‘Need to enforce laws regarding thalassaemia’

KARACHI:

Health Minister Jam Mahtab Hussain Dahar emphasised the need for implementation of laws regarding thalassaemia, during a meeting with the Sindh Blood Transfusion Authority secretary Dr Zahid Hussain Ansari on Thursday.

Dahar spoke about the necessity to enforce the government’s law, under which thalassaemia testing was mandatory before marriage and issuance of a computerised marriage certificate. “The law is not being followed due to lack of awareness,” he said.

Dr Ansari told the minister that an awareness seminar was recently held, in which the law and health risks attached to marriages without thalassemia tests of the couples were discussed with the participants. He said that inter-family marriages were causing this illness among newborns and added that such marriages need to be discouraged. It was decided that activities will be organised to raise awareness about the health condition and the thalassemia law.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 6^th, 2016.