Mumbai: The International Thalasaemia Day fell on Monday and Mumbai has been gearing up to spread awareness on the disorder.
Rajkumar, a software professional, normally bikes it to play badminton but last Saturday he changed his mind and went to attend a lecture on Thalassaemia.
Thalassaemia can be Major or Minor. Thalassaemia Minors are healthy individuals for most part, except that they have a defective gene.
On the other hand, a Thalassaemia Major is a person who needs frequent blood transfusions throughout his or her life and has to take injections daily to bring down excessive iron in the body resulting from the transfusions.
Anil Shah, a Thalassaemia Minor, and father of a Thalassaemia Major, delivered the lecture on the disease, explaining about his own experiences. "My son is 19 years old and so far has had 7,000 injections," he said.
The fact is that if a Thalasaemia Minor marries another Minor, chances that their child will be a Major is 25 per cent.
"I am well educated and in a good job. But I couldn't save my son. He'll have to take the treatment life long," said Shah.
Comments
0 comment