LAHORE, Nov 27: The Thalassaemia Society of Pakistan (TSP) is establishing a Thalassaemia Centre in Dera Ghazi Khan, the city having a high rate of prevalence, to offer optimal treatment including blood transfusion, iron chelation and vaccination to the affected children.

According to a press release issued on Saturday, TSP president Prof Jovaria Mannan visited DG Khan, organised two camps, examined more than 60 thalassaemia major patients and registered their families for the centre. Besides providing treatment facilities on the doorstep of thalassaemic children, the centre would also provide preventive services, including genetic counseling, carrier screening and prenatal diagnosis, it added.

The TSP has also selected three lady doctors from DG Khan for training them in prenatal diagnosis. Prof Mannan said that was a highly skilled technique to diagnose the disease in a fetus as early as three months of pregnancy. In this regard, she said, the selected doctors would be imparted knowledge about fetal medicine at a two-day international workshop to be organised by the TSP, in collaboration with the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan. The workshop will begin from Monday (tomorrow).

The lady doctors will be imparted training by TSP secretary-general Prof Dr Yasmin Raashid, the pioneer of fetal medicine in Pakistan, and Prof Gerald Mason, fetal medicine consultant from the University of Leeds, UK.

Prof Raashid, who is running the largest centre offering prenatal diagnosis of genetic disorders, including thalassaemia, in the country, said the prevalence of thalassaemia was the highest in DG Khan as a majority of district's population belonged to the Baloch tribe which had thalassaemia prevalence at the rate of around eight per cent. “Considering the high rate of thalassaemia in the district and lack of services, the TSP has taken the challenge to establish a centre for the people of this district,” said Prof Raashid.