MOH outlines importance of thalassemia awareness

PUTRAJAYA, Sept 15 --  With every single thalassemia major patient requiring an estimated RM3 million for treatment over 30 years, the Ministry of Health has stressed the importance of implementing preventive initiatives to reduce the number of new thalassemia patients.

The ministry’s secretary-general, Datuk Mohd Shafiq Abdullah, said the ‘NowyouSEEme 2021’ campaign, which kicked off from March until August this year online, was to educate secondary school students about thalassemia.

“It is a catalyst for efforts to curb the disease as well as increase the level of awareness that the disease can be contained if detected early," he said at the award ceremony and closing of the 'NowyouSEEme 2021' campaign online today.

Through the campaign, he said the students were told that thalassemia is a group of blood disorders passed from parents to children through genes (inherited) that cannot be prevented and is not an infectious disease. 

The NowyouSEEme 2021 campaign is a collaboration between Respol Malaysia Oil and Gas Malaysia Ltd, Education Ministry and MOH. 

Over 13,000 students and teachers from 50 schools in Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang were involved in the campaign activities. 

According to Mohd Shafiq, a total of 689,460 Form Four students have undergone Thalassemia screenings at the schools, and of the total, 31,716 students are detected as Thalassemia carriers from 2016 to 2018.

“Until now, collected data still shows that one in every 20 people screened is a carrier of thalassemia," he said.

-- BERNAMA