Preventing Thalassemia

We have known from a TDS article (May 25, 2014) that there are 16 million people in Bangladesh who carry the abnormal gene that causes Thalassemia. But further increase of Thalassemia patients can be prevented by taking some simple measures which include raising awareness, getting tested before marriage, and prenatal diagnosis of couples. Getting tested before marriage is really a good option to prevent the disease, because a child will have Thalassemia only when both the parents carry the gene. Many countries in the world have completely eradicated the disease by taking these pragmatic steps. Our health ministry must ensure that all the government laboratories are well equipped to diagnose the disease. At the same time, there is no alternative to awareness campaigns.
Habibur Rahman
On e-mail