Health care Thalassaemia: Treatment Room opens at CMH

Parents will be counselled by a clinical psychologist.

BAHALWALPUR:

More than 55,000 people in Pakistan suffer from the debilitating complications and shortened life expectancies associated with thalassaemia.

In an attempt to mitigate the ailment’s impact on patients and its devastating psycho-social effect on the parents, the Bahawalpur Corps Headquarters have established a Thalassaemia Unit in the Child OPD at the Combined Military Hospital.

The unit has been equipped to provide blood transfusions to as many as three children at a time. A child specialist and trained nursing staff have also been assigned to the unit.

The Thalassaemia Treatment Room is furnished with reclining sofas, an LCD TV for children to watch movies on and a surround sound system. The children will be given snacks and juices and parents will be given pamphlets on the disease.

The children’s and their families’ medical history will be recorded, analysed and discussed with the parents. This information will also be used for scientific research on the disease.

Awareness seminars will also be held for the patients’ families. They will be provided counselling by a clinical psychologist at the CMH.

Thalassaemia is a genetic disorder that prevents the body from producing adequate haemoglobin in red blood cells. Parents with the recessive gene for the disease transfer it to their children. Almost 3-8 per cent of Pakistanis suffer from the disease.

The debilitating effects of the disease include a gradual weakening of red blood cells. This damage is treated through regular blood transfusions. Frequent transfusions can cause an iron overload in the blood, which is then treated with medication. The treatment is quite expensive and has to be carried out regularly.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 25^th, 2013.