By Fazal Khaliq
MINGORA: Speakers at a seminar on Sunday called for creating awareness among communities about thalassaemia.
They were speaking at a function titled ‘access to safe and effective drugs in thalassaemia’ organised by SRSP and district administration at Saidu Sharif.
Thalassaemia patients, parents, district administration and army officials, youth and members of local support organisations attended the event.
On the occasion, Swat Medical College Principal and Chief Executive of the Saidu Group of Hospitals Dr Taj Mohammad Khan said prevention was better than cure, asking parents to get their ailing children treated before their marriage to avoid future health issues.
“Raising awareness among parents and communities can only tackle thalassaemia. It is also the responsibility of doctors and health experts to convey the knowledge about thalassaemia to communities,” he maintained.
Ijaz Ali, a programme coordinator of SRSP, said serious efforts by government as well as non-governmental organisations were needed to control thalassaemia. “Today, seeing large number of people from all walks of life gathered here for a great cause proves that people want to eliminate thalassaemia from Swat. I hope that all these people who learnt about causes of thalassaemia will disseminate information to other people in their homes and villages,” he said.
He thanked the European Union and Wajiha Thalassaemia Foundation for organising the event to raise awareness among people.
Walk held to raise awareness about thalassaemia
Meanwhile, thalassaemia children, parents and social activists staged an awareness walk in Mingora organised by Al Fajar Foundation.
Holding placards and banners inscribed with awareness slogans regarding spread of thalassaemia and its control, they marched from Nishat chowk and gathered at Makanbagh chowk.
Sarzamin Khan a health activist who was leading the walk told the Morning Post that thalassaemia could be controlled if parents conduct thalassaemia tests of their children before their marriage. “Controlling and eliminating the disease is not only the responsibility of a government but a collective effort of the entire society,” he said, adding that Thalassemia was controlled in the rest of the world except Pakistan.
He said that the children belonged to Pakistan and were the future of the country so they must be saved from such lethal diseases by creating awareness in societies.
thalassaemic children in the walk said that on the world day of thalassaemia today we wanted to send the message to everyone to join them in eliminating the disease.
“Very few people know about thalassaemia in Swat so we, the thalassaemia victims, have come out to the streets to raise awareness about the disease. The walk is the best initiative to raise awareness as more and more people will be informed and will donate blood to us,” said Mahwish a thalassaemic girl, adding that they (the thalassaemic children) lived with the donation of bloods by generous people.
