Executive Director of Afzaal Memorial Thalassemia Foundation (AMTF) Ateeq-ur-Rehman has urged Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah to initiate bone marrow transplantation in public sector hospitals in the province. "The establishment of bone marrow transplant centre at the Children Hospital in Lahore is an important service to the deprived patients suffering from thalassemia and plastic anemia cancer," he said, adding that it would also benefit those patients whose immunity is weak and can also be treated by bone marrow transplantation.
He congratulated the administration, doctors and paramedical staff of the Children Hospital Lahore for successfully carrying out two bone marrow transplantation that was conducted for the first time by any public sector hospital.
Ateeq-ur-Rehman said that all provinces of Pakistan should follow the example of the Children Hospital Lahore and by doing so they would be able to save those children being born with such fatal disease.
"AMTF is working to save the lives of thousands of patients suffering from thalassemia in Karachi," he said, adding that from blood transfusions to the life saving medicines and above all the facilities of dedicated clinics and ICU cannot be managed without adequate fiscal budget and that is why AMTF needs enough money to meet these expenses.
He explained that thalassemia is a self-inflicted disease and it spreads due to human error. He said that treatment of thalassemic children is very expensive and is out of reach of a common man as they are permanent guest of the hospital. He said that they were also planning to establish such additional facilities but the paucity of funds was main hurdle in the way of progress.