Addressing an event at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital on the occasion of World Thalassemia Day, Birla said there is the strong need to prevent thalassemia through national-level screening and assured his help in implementing the programme.
On the occasion, he interacted with and felicitated many thalassemic children.
He also urged that safe blood be provided for these multi-transfused patients, according to a statement issued by the hospital.
He stressed the need for facilities to be available in all parts of the country.
Birla appealed to all members of Parliament to take a lead role in organising thalassemia screening programmes in their respective constituencies so that it can be eradicated from India as soon as possible.
“I will also recommend the government of India to start thalassemia testing free of cost,” he was quoted as saying in the statement.
Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Arjun Munda was also present on the occasion.
“As guided by our prime minister, we are soon going to start a colour card system to identify all genetically-linked diseases so that they can be easily identified. The government will start a national mission to eradicate thalassemia like sickle cell anaemia. We will eradicate these diseases from India in 25 years,” Munda was quoted as saying in the statement.
The programme was held in the premises of the SGRH in association with Thalassemics India.
Dr Anupam Sachdeva, head of paediatric hematology and bone marrow transplant at the hospital, said that since 2006 at the SGRH, all pregnancies are being screened for thalassemia, and claimed that since then “we have screened over 50,000 pregnancies and no thalassemic child has been born since then”.
Dr V K Khanna, chairman, department of paediatrics, reiterated that treatment for thalassemia is available in the form of bone and stem cell transplant and “we have done nearly 200 transplants here, but the need of the hour is to prevent the disease”.
Meanwhile, doctors at Fortis Hospital in Gurugram said thalassemia is among the most common inherited disease worldwide.
The disease causes devastating impact on the health of the patients and finances of their families as the patients require life-long blood transfusions.
In other words, a thalassemic child leads a borrowed life depending on blood transfusions and chelation. The disease is spreading because of ignorance. Therefore, creating awareness is the need of the hour, they said.
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