PESHAWAR, Aug 3: The NWFP health department will launch a project to screen people across the province for thalassaemia to know about the magnitude of the disease and take preventive measures.

According to the chief of the child health department of 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 three-year project.

He said the project would be started with a study on the prevalence of the disease in the province.

He said equipment worth Rs3 million had been purchased and installed at the PMRC to diagnose patients.

He said a directory of thalassaemia cases would be prepared, which would be followed by screening of 60 members of the family of the patient’s father and 60 of the mother’s family.

Dr Hameed said 25 per cent of children whose fathers or mothers were carriers of thalassaemia major were at risk of catching the disease.

He said a provincial screening centre had been established at the PMRC and officials of district headquarters hospitals had been asked to refer suspected patients to the centre for free diagnostic services. Similarly, he said, EDOs, education, had been asked to refer children suspected of having the disease to the centre.

He said programmes would be organised to create awareness among people about the disease.

Dr Zahoorullah said people would be encouraged for screening before marriage.

He said apart from two laboratories at the PMRC, a mobile laboratory had also been acquired that would visit different areas. He said mobile teams would also be constituted for screening high-risk families.

He said the programme was also aimed at paving the way for legislation to terminate pregnancies found positive for the disease. In this connection, he said, services of religious scholars would be obtained.