PESHAWAR, June 16: “Children with blood diseases are at further risk as safe blood transfusion facilities are not available to many,” says Faryal Gohar, a former UN goodwill ambassador and actress.
Speaking at a press briefing here on Saturday after a visit to the Frontier Foundation (FF), a private organisation for thalassaemia, haemophilia and blood cancer patients, she promised that efforts would be made to help the vulnerable children by creating linkages between the government and the organisations working to treat people suffering from blood diseases.
She stressed that it was the prime responsibility of the government to provide health facilities to its citizens, but complained that most hospitals lacked safe blood transfusion and screening facilities.
“I am myself a patient of hepatitis C and can say on the basis of first hand information that its treatment is very expensive. Many people suffering from such type of blood diseases cannot afford the treatment due to poverty,” she said.
Ms Gohar, better known for her activism than acting, said that a majority of people were deprived of blood screening and transfusion facilities and were, therefore, at risk of infection by killer diseases.Child patients and their mothers at the blood transfusion centre deplored that the treatment cost a fortune.
Amarjit Kaur, a mother of three, said that her seven-year-old son had died of thalassaemia last year. Her other son, Gulinder Singh, aged eight, visits the centre weekly for blood transfusion.
Ms Kaur said that her husband was a vendor and could not afford the expensive treatment, adding that they had to rely on free blood transfusion services.
FF Chief Executive Sahibzada Haleem said that 1,422 children suffering from thalassaemia had been registered in Peshawar and another 260 patients in southern parts of the province. He said that blood transfusion services were being provided through donations.
