PESHAWAR, March 12: The NWFP health department is launching a project to spread awareness regarding prevention of thalassaemia.

According to the chief of the child health department in the Khyber Teaching Hospital, Prof Abdul Hameed, who is looking after the project with Pakistan Medical Research Council (PMRC) Director Dr Zahoorullah and Dr Fazle Raziq, the government has allocated Rs30 million for the purpose.

He said first a study would be conducted to ascertain the prevalence of the ailment in the province. “Thalassaemia is a genetic disease,” he said.

He said a crash programme was being launched from March 15 with preparation of a directory of index cases, which would be followed by a strategy to screen 60 members of the family of the patient’s father and 60 of the mothers’ family.

He said 25 per cent of children whose father and mothers were carriers of thalassaemia major remained at risk of the ailment.

He said a provincial screening centre would be established at the Pakistan Medical and Research Council at the Khyber Medical College and similar programmes would be started in the districts where the prevalence of the ailment was high.

He said programmes would be launched to educate careers of thalassaemia major and other people about the disease.

Prof Hameed said the longest surviving child suffering from thalassaemia was 26 years old, whose brother, a doctor, took extreme care of him. He said bone marrow transplantation was a permanent solution but it cost Rs1.2 million with Rs10,000 per month needed for subsequent treatment.

“Efforts will be made to educate people about screening before getting married,” said Dr Zahoorullah.

He said Iran and Saudi Arabia had eliminated the disease by linking registration of marriages to screening of the couples.

He said plans were being made to constitute mobile teams for screening the high-risk families.

He said the programme could be strengthened at a later stage by involving gynaecologists in it.

He said the programme also aimed at paving the way for legislation for termination of the pregnancies found positive for the disease.

“For this purpose, DNA tests of pregnant women would be carried out. As the facilities are not available locally and the cost of a test is Rs4,000, we are negotiating with the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in this regard,” he said.

He said gynaecologists and paediatricians at the teaching hospitals of the city would be trained.

He said a thalassaemia and genetic disease centre would be established at the proposed children’s hospital.

He said religious leaders would be involved in education against the disease.