Guests, along with the children with thalassemia, pose for a photograph at a toy distribution programme organised by Dhaka Shishu Hospital on Saturday. — New Age photo

Health experts on Saturday urged the government to raise public awareness against thalassaemia and also for preventing marriage between the carriers of the genetic disorder.
Speaking at discussion in the city they also asked the government to make blood tests mandatory before marriage to find out thalassaemia carriers to prevent marriage between them.
They said 8,000 babies are born with the inherited disorder in Bangladesh each year.
They asked the health ministry to create public awareness about the disease and for preventing marriage between two thalassaemia carriers.
Thalassaemia affects the production of haemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying protein in red blood cells, said experts.
They asked the health ministry for arranging counselling of the thalassaemia patients to make their children aware about getting the blood of their future partners tested before marriage.
Dhaka Shishu Hospital organized the discussion at its Thalassaemia Centre.
Without sustained treatment thalassaemia causes severe anaemia leading to death, experts said.
Thalassaemia cannot be cured, they said, and its treatment includes regular blood transfusion and medication to remove the excess iron from the patient’s blood.
Prevention of marriage between thalassaemia carriers, they said, could prevent thalassaemia infection in their babies
Dhaka Shishu Hospital management board chairman Mahmudur Rahman said that the government should take the responsibility of the patients as the treatment of the disorder was very expensive.
He said that the thalassaemia patients consume 60 per cent of the total blood transfusion in the country.
Experts called upon the people to donate blood
regularly.
They also requested the affluent to come to the aid of the children suffering from thalassaemia.
Dhaka Shishu Hospital Thalassaemia Centre secretary general M Salimuzzaman called for increasing the number of beds for thalassaemia patients at Dhaka Shishu Hospital to cope with the growing number of patients.
Waqar Ahmed Khan, acting director of the hospital attended the programme.