'Around 8 pc suffer from thalassemia in S Asia'

Chairman of Bangladesh Red Crescent Society (BRCS) Advocate Harun Al Rashid MP inaugurated the centre at Jamison Red Crescent Maternity Hospital Building at Anderkilla.

Chittagong District Red Crescent unit established the centre under the auspices of Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC), sources said.

Speakers at the inaugural ceremony said around 3 to 8 per cent people of South Asian countries suffer from thalassemia, a disease one inherits from parents through red blood corpuscles.

The thalassemia patients are vulnerable to mechanical injury that might lead the patients to death, cautioned concerned specialists at the ceremony.

For survival, the thalassemia patients need to get blood transfusion done at regular intervals, which is very expensive, they said.

Advocate Harun addressed the inaugural ceremony as the chief guest with Acting President of Chittagong District Red Crescent Unit Dr Shahadat Hossain in the chair.

HSBC Chief Executive Officer Steve Banner, acting Secretary General of Bangladesh Red Crescent Society ASM Akram and former principal of Chittagong Medical College (CMC) Professor Dr Chowdhury B Mahmud were present as special guests.

Addressing the ceremony, Advocate Harun emphasised the importance of finding ways to prevent thalassemia before the birth of a baby since treatment of the deadly disease is yet to be discovered.

He said the research at the newly established centre would make efforts to do something in this regard.

BRCS chairman further said the research centre would play a role in creating mass awareness against the disease in Chittagong.

Steve Banner in his speech said HSBC is always trying to contribute to various charitable works for the cause of humanity while carrying out banking activities in 76 countries and territories in the world.

In this respect, he said HSBC feels proud of being a part of the centre making a donation of Tk 42 lakh for it.

Dr Minhaj, in-charge of the centre, told The Daily Star that the centre installed a modern Haemoglobin Electroforesis Machine to detect the thalassemia.

The centre would have five beds and offer the patients blood transfusion at only Tk 600 as against Tk 2000 charged for each transfusion outside, he informed.