PESHAWAR: Health experts and social workers have said that cases of thalassaemia are alarmingly increasing in Pakistan, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

They have demanded urgent action to control further spread of the hereditary disease.

Addressing a news conference at Peshawar Press Club on Thursday in connection with World Thalassaemia Day, social activist Ejaz Ali Khan said that 60,000 people were suffering from thalassaemia in Pakistan including 25,000 registered patients in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Ejaz Ali Khan, founder of Hamza Foundation and member of central executive committee of Thalassaemia Federation of Pakistan, urged provincial government to enact a law on the pattern of Thalassaemia Prevention Bill, 2025, already approved in Punjab, to control the disease.

KP has 25,000 registered patients of the hereditary disease

He stressed the need for making thalassaemia screening compulsory for students at the time of admission to educational institutions. He said that global prevalence rate of thalassaemia stood at 1.5 per cent. In Pakistan it ranged between five and eight per cent, he added.

Mr Khan said that nearly 5,000 children with thalassaemia major were born in Pakistan every year. An estimated 10 million people in the country were carriers of beta thalassaemia, also known as thalassaemia minor, he added.

He said that the disease was largely spreading because of cousin marriages. He said that around 60 per cent of cases were linked to first-cousin marriages, 15 per cent to second-cousin marriages and another 15 per cent to marriages among other close relatives.

He urged people to undergo mandatory thalassaemia testing, particularly Hb electrophoresis screening, before marriage to protect future generations from the disease. He said that thalassaemia was an inherited blood disorder in which body failed to produce healthy red blood cells, forcing patients to depend on blood transfusions every 15 to 20 days throughout their lives.

Mr Khan said that since 2006, Hamza Foundation had been providing free treatment support, screened blood, medicines and meals to patients suffering from thalassaemia, haemophilia and other blood disorders.

He appealed to government to provide Hamza Foundation with a building in Peshawar for the treatment of poor patients, saying the organisation was currently operating in a rented building with a monthly rent of Rs300,000.

Meanwhile, Khyber Medical University (KMU) Peshawar, in collaboration with Nigehban-i-Khoon Welfare Organisation, held Thalassaemia Awareness Symposium 2026.

The event was arranged to promote awareness regarding prevention, early diagnosis, and treatment of thalassaemia. The symposium was attended by a large number of faculty members and students alongside guests including Prof Sami Siraj, Alkhidmat Foundation president Khalid Waqas Chamkani, Dr Ayesha Imtiaz and Dr Dur-i-Nayab.

Speakers highlighted the importance of public awareness, timely diagnosis and effective treatment of thalassaemia. They said that awareness campaigns, genetic counselling and premarital screening could play a vital role in reducing the prevalence of the disease in Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, May 8th, 2026