Targets 2020 to rid the disease:
Thalassemia awareness project for NWP
Chamikara WEERASINGHE
The Health Services Director's Office of the North Western Province
will commence a project tomorrow to help the Province get rid of
Thalassemia by 2020.
The North Western Province is said to have the largest number of
Thalassemia patients.
North Western Province Health Director Dr. R.M.S.K.Ratnayaka says
there are 1,700 reported Thalassemia patients in the country and of them
31 percent are found in North Western Province.
The project will take off with the participation of Health and
Nutrition Ministry and the Mass Media and Information Ministry.
Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka will participate at the
project's inauguration to be held at the North Western Province's new
auditorium. Health Minister Nimal Siripala De Silva and Mass Media,
Information, Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion Minister
Anura Priyadarshana Yapa will also participate.
Speaking on the spreading of the disease Dr. Ratnayaka said the cases
of Thalassemia have also been reported from North Central and Uva
Provinces.
There are about 465 Thalassemia patients in the North Western
Province, and of them 370 cases are from the Kurunegala district where
the National Centre for Thalassemia was formed in 2003. The Government
spends Rs. 300,000 to Rs 400,000 to treat one patient every month.
National Thalassemia Centre spends Rs. 200 million on Thalassemia
patients every year, Dr. Ratnayaka said.
A child with thalassemia needs blood transfusions three or four times
a week and daily injections to control the extra iron in the blood.
The National Thalassemia Centre has 591 registered patients.
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