Thalassaemic Children Welfare Association to Hold CME on Thalassaemia

By 121 News

Chandigarh 24^th September:- The Pediatric Hematology-Oncology Unit, APC, PGIMER, Chandigarh along with the Thalassaemic Children Welfare Association, Chandigarh is having a one day CME on 25^th September, 2015 on Thalassaemia. The meeting is being attended by delegates from north India and faculty includes experts in the field from Delhi and Chandigarh.

Nearly one lakh children of beta thalassaemia major die each year in low and middle income countries due to lack of adequate facilities to treat these children. Thalassaemia is one of the commonest inherited disorders of blood in India. The carrier frequency ranges from 3 to 8% in the Indian population.  The incidence is higher amongst people who have migrated from Pakistan (now settled in Punjab & Haryana).  It is higher in the Khatri, Arora, Sharma and Aggarwal communities.  The management of thalassaemia requires lifelong transfusion therapy with chelation. The only curative treatment is a stem cell transplant.

This CME is organized with the aim of improving knowledge of the disease among physicians and patients to enable better management of this illness.  In addition, the problems faced during blood transfusions and the current practices for save blood would be discussed. There would also be a session on Transplantation in Thalassaemia.  Thalassaemia is a preventable disease.  If both parents are carriers of the disease, their child has a 25% risk of having thalassaemia.  Countries with a very high incidence of thalassaemia have aimed to eradicate the disease by screening of the population before marriage.  This has brought down the rate of thalassaemia in countries like; Greece, Cyprus where thalassaemia had a very high incidence. Preventive measures include population screening for carrier detection which are being started in certain parts of our country.  In addition, it is recommended that any person whose family member/relative is affected by the disease should get himself/herself tested for carrier status (which is a simple blood test). The meeting would also highlight pre-natal diagnosis of thalassaemia which can be carried out between third and fourth month of pregnancy in case both parents are carriers of disease.