Young people should undergo mandatory blood screening before getting married to eradicate thalassaemia from the country, said Health Minister Dr Sagheer Ahmed. He was speaking at a conference organised by the Kashif Iqbal Thalassaemia Care Centre. Senator Abdul Haseeb Khan is a trustee.
Senator Haseeb said that he would table the Thalassaemia Prevention Bill 2012 in the Senate and motivate MNAs to move the bill in the National Assembly and MPAs in their respective provincial assemblies.
The centre’s Muhammad Iqbal said that the annual birth of 6,000 babies with Thalassaemia Major is a challenge. Kashif Mulla of the centre and a representative of the Thalassaemia Federation of Pakistan, Sindh said that approximately Rs1 billion was being spent yearly on providing supportive treatment to thalassaemia patients in Pakistan but testing would be so much cheaper.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 11th, 2012.
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