PESHAWAR, May 8: Non-availability of proper treatment, coupled with lack of awareness, is the main reason behind the rapid rise in cases of thalassaemia in the country, according to experts.

There are at least 250,000 thalassaemia patients in the country. And as the disease has no cure, the only option to prevent it is to avoid marriage among cousins, they say.

According to these experts, the disease is prevalent among 0.6 per cent anaemic children. They add that eight per cent children in Balochistan, seven per cent in the NWFP, 5.2 per cent in Punjab and 4.3 per cent in Sindh suffer from the disease.

They are of the view that regular blood transfusion is the only way to prolong the lives of thalassaemia patients. This too poses difficulties because most blood transfusion facilities are available in major cities of the country only, say experts.

Citing different studies, they say the disease has been eradicated in the UK, Italy, Greece, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Cyprus through awareness campaigns and preventive measures.

In Pakistan, they say, 5,000 children are added to the thalassaemia club every year.

Prof Dr Abdul Hameed, head of the Child Health Department in the Khyber Teaching Hospital, told Dawn that the provincial government had allocated Rs30 million for a three-year public awareness project about the disease. He said at present the NWFP had about 4,000 registered patients, adding that under the programme a screening centre would be established in the Khyber Medical College while similar programmes would be launched in all districts of the province.

He said the project would begin with a study on the prevalence of the disease in the province, adding that Rs3 million equipment had been purchased and installed in the PMRC for the purpose.

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

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

He said a provincial screening centre had been established in the PMRC and officials of district headquarters hospitals had been asked to refer suspected patients to the centre.

Similarly, he said, officers of the education department had been asked to refer children suspected of having the disease to the centre.

Dr Zahoorullah, a pathologist at the PMRC, said the people would be encouraged to screen for thalassaemia before their marriage.

He said that apart from two laboratories established at the PMRC, a mobile laboratory had also been acquired. He said that mobile teams would be constituted for screening high-risk families, adding that the programme was aimed at paving the way for legislation to terminate pregnancies in case found positive for the disease.

In this connection, he said, services of religious scholars would also be acquired.

He said that thalassaemia was a blood disease and affected children needed blood transfusion every three to six months, and as they grew, they needed blood on a monthly and then on a weekly basis.