‘Law on premarital thalassemia tests soon’

Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid has said a bill for premarital thalassemia tests would be passed very soon as six out of every 100 Pakistanis carry this mutant gene.

She expressed these views while inaugurating the 15th National Thalassemia Conference and Workshop at Fatima Jinnah Medical University on Saturday.

Present on the occasion were Vice Chancellor Fatima Jinnah Medical University Professor Amir Zaman Khan, Major-General (retd) Suhaib, Professor Javeria Mannan, General (retd) Moinuddin Haider, Professor Yasmin Ihsan, Dr Hussain Jaffery, a large number of patients, parents, doctors and social workers from within the country and abroad who joined via video link. Thalassemia is the most common genetic disorder in Pakistan. It is estimated that around 12 million people are healthy carriers of the gene. It is an autosomal recessive disease, which means that if two carriers get married to each other then they will have a 25% chance of having an offspring with thalassemia major in every pregnancy.

The minister said majority of the patients in Pakistan do not get adequate treatment. “Every day about 17 children are born with this genetic disorder. The treatment through bone marrow transplant is very expensive and we have never paid due attention to this disease in the past,” the minister said.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 8^th, 2020.