International Thalassaemia Day observed

Jamshedpur, May 8 (UNI) International Thalassaemia Day was observed here today with much concern over the disease.

The day was organised by Dr S P Chatterjee Memorial Health Association here in which many an expert participated.

''Prevalance of Thalassaemia, a genetic disorder, has been a matter of concern world wide, particularly in our country and a proper awareness campaign about the disease should be launched with the help of the government and the NGOs,'' said experts.

Observing the Day, Dr T K Chatterjee, the assocition president, expressed concern over the apathetic attitude by the government towards this deadly disease.

He said Thalassaemia, one kind of anaemia, is caused owing to overload of iron on the endocrine glands like kidney. It is mainly found in children through mother's womb.

Dr Chatterjee lamented that in our country proper detection of the disease was not available and ignorance about the disease had complicated the situation. He said there were more undetected cases and according to a survey, about 40,000 Thalassaemic children were found in Jharkhand alone.

Dr Chatterjee also raised question about distribution of iron tablets in the remote villages by the government agencies to control anaemia without prior detection of Thalassaemia. He said it led the death of the patients as the Thalassaemics have already high iron content in their body. He said a scientific knowledge about the disease should be given and one should know the difference between Thalassaemia and Anaemia first.

He suggested that a mandatory test should be carried out before marriage and both thalassaemics should not be allowed to marry.

Dr Chatterjee regretted the lack of availbility of treatment of Thalassaemia in our country. ''The only treatment available is blood transfusion and chelation of iron,'' he informed.

The chief of Tata Steel's Community Development and Social Welfare G M Sharan also stressed the need on launching of awareness programmes to educate people about the disease and emphasized on the public, private and the government partnership to cope with the disease.

The Thalassaemica Care Unit of the association would also organise a ''Thalassaemia Detection Camp'' here on May 18.

UNI