AsiaNet-Pakistan Premier Editorial Content and Press Release Distribution Service
Karachi, January 05, 2013 (PPI-OT): Saying that Thalasaemia patients needed the government’s and society’s attention, Sindh Governor Dr Ishrat Ul Ebad Khan has announced that more Thalasaemia care centres will be established in public sector teaching hospitals on a fast-track basis.
The governor said this while speaking as a chief guest at the inaugural ceremony of the eight-bed Thalasaemia care unit of the Dow University of Health Sciences at the Governor’s House on Friday.
The governor told the academicians and healthcare professionals present on the occasion that the situation related to Thalasaemia prevalence in Pakistan was not very much different from other developing countries and a holistic and collective approach was needed to address the problems of Thalasaemia patients, who frequently needed a safe-blood transfusion, ideally for free.
“It is heartening that the DUHS has been able to establish a treatment centre for Thalasaemia patients on a chancellor-office’s health care initiative in a very short time, and I hope that similar centres will be established in Jamshoro by the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences within a couple of months, followed by other teaching hospitals of the province,” he said, adding that the government would support these centres by providing funds.
He also announced a grant of Rs10 million for the newly commissioned Thalasaemia assistance unit of the DUHS on its Ojha campus, where children with thalassaemia were being given blood transfusions and other components on a regular basis against nominal charges.
The governor, who is also the chancellor of the DUHS, said that he would focus on the establishment and management of thalassaemia facilities.
The DUHS vice-chancellor, Prof Masood Hameed Khan, said that establishment of assistance units under the Dow Institute of Haematology was indeed a matter of pride and satisfaction for the DUHS which had transformed the level of healthcare education and research and medical services given to the community in Karachi in recent years.
Director of the Dow thalassaemia assistance programme, Prof Dr Akbar Agha, said that thalassaemia problems needed to be discussed on a sensible and practical basis involving a public advocacy and awareness and stressed the need for screening of individuals for blood disorder and provision of affordable treatments.
Dr Zainab Mukhtar, a consultant and project manager at the DUHS, said that only 45 per cent of 81 million bags of blood collected annually worldwide came from developing world, where 80 per cent of the world population lived.
For more information, contact:
Sindh Governor House
Syed Wajahat Ali
Press Secretary to Governor
Tel: 99201217, 99201201-3
Email: press_secretary@governorsindh.gov.pk