Thalassemia cost Ministry 5pc of annual budget

Nadira GUNATILLEKE

Thalassemia patients cost the Healthcare and Nutrition Ministry five per cent of its annual budget, Ministry sources revealed.

The Government incurs over Rs 1.7 million on one patient of the 2,000 Thalassemia patients treated annually, a Ministry spokesman said. He said in Sri Lanka, nearly100 children were born with Thalassemia annually and the Government spent Rs. 350 billion to treat these 2,000 patients. When considering the number of patients who suffer from other diseases, Thalassemia is quite an uncommon disease in Sri Lanka.

Children born with Thalassemia cannot be cured completely but they could lead a normal life by controlling the disease with treatment.

Thalassemia is a disease that is conveyed to children from parents based on biological factors when blood relatives enter into matrimony. People with Thalassemia trait (carriers) receive variant genes from one parent and normal genes from the other parent.