Blood test for thalassemia to be conducted before marriage: Dr Yasmin

Lahore: Referring to make premarital thalassemia tests mandatory, Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid has announced that blood test for thalassemia will be conducted before marriage.

Addressing a ceremony in Lahore, Dr Yasmin Rashid said that the health cards are being issued for children suffering from thalassemia disease. “As many as 85 per cent people know about thalassemia due to awareness campaign,” she added. 

The minister said that screening of 275 thousand people has been completed, health cards are being issued to children suffering from thalassemia and it is starting from Lahore, adding that health cards will be given from January to March.

Dr Yasmin Rashid further said that they have discovered inherited disease by researching the genes of the small head size baby. “It is commendable to carry out the diagnosis before birth. We are going to set up institute in Fatima Jinnah Medical University.”

Earlier, the Punjab health minister said that the premarital thalassaemia tests will be passed to prevent spread of blood disease among the newborns. “The treatment of thalassemia through Bone Marrow Transplant is very expensive but we have never paid due attention to this disease in the past,” she said. 

Dr Yasmin Rashid said thalassemia is a priority health area for Punjab government and the government is already working on establishing treatment centres in all the district level hospitals of Punjab, while separate beds will be reserved for thalassemia patients in Punjab.

She also mentioned that thalassemia is a preventable disease and ‘our hope lies in adopting a preventive programme on the line pursued by countries like Italy, Cyprus and Iran, which has resulted in either complete control or significant reduction in the births of new thalassemia major children in these countries’.