KARACHI, May 4: A Thalassaemia Conference will be held on Wednesday to observe the International Day of Thalassaemia at 5pm, says a press release.

The conference is being organized by the Kashif Iqbal Thalassaemia Care Centre. Sindh Governor Mohammedmian Soomro will be the chief guest.

Prof Dr M. Khursheed, Dr Mohammad Irfan, Dr Tahir Shamsi and H.N. Akhtar will also speak on the occasion.

The press release adds that in Pakistan 100,000 children are suffering from thalassaemia whereas 5,000-6,000 babies are thalassaemia patients by birth every year.

A Thalassaemic child has to be kept on frequent blood transfusion for six-seventh months after birth for survival. Experts say that the problem is not of blood transfusion.

Transfusion creates a number of complications of which iron overload is the main for which desferal injection is infused regularly through slow infusion pump.

The imported infusion is too costly to be afforded by poor Pakistan Thalessaemic families.