Legislation on blood screening before marriage soon

[Naveed Yaseen]

ISLAMABAD: The government is working on legislation for compulsory blood screening before marriage to protect newborn babies from thalassaemia, Health Secretary Khushnood Akhtar Lashari said on Tuesday.

Addressing a ceremony to hand over free medicines to thalassaemia patients, the secretary said the bill in question had already been sent to the National Assembly standing committee.

He hoped legislators would approve the bill soon.

He said thalassaemia, a genetic blood disease, was the most commonly inherited single gene disorder in the country, adding normal haemoglobin was not produced in children born with the disease, causing severe anaemia. Lashari said there was a need to encourage voluntary blood transfusion services.

He said such services would be offered at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences soon, adding better health services could be provided to thalassaemia patients with joint efforts from civil society organisations and pharmaceutical companies.

He said the disease was mainly reported in the poor due to lack of awareness while complications aggravated their worries.

Lashari said private organisations should also come forward and launch awareness campaigns to educate masses about thalassaemia, adding the media’s role was also important. Pakistan Thalassaemia Welfare Society President Gen ® Faheem Ahmad Khan said the society had been helping thalassaemia patients since 1991. He said there was a need to introduce laws that restricted marriage of couples carrying the disease, adding thousands of Pakistani children were diagnosed with thalassaemia every year. Tausif Ahmad Khan, the vice chairman of Highnoon Laboratories Limited, announced free of cost medicines for thalassaemia patients, later handing over medicines worth Rs 0.5 million to Gen ® Faheem. app

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...2009_pg7_9