Daily Times

KARACHI: Mukhtiyar Ahmad Mangrio, a 13-year-old boy from Sindh’s remote district Umerkot has been diagnosed with blood cancer at the National Institute of Child Health (NICH) Karachi last week. Delayed treatment has brought him among the high risk cases, doctors say.

Hailing from Faqeer Muhammad Ameen Mangrio village of Umerkot, Mukhtiyar has been ill for last two years but could not be diagnosed due to absence of related healthcare facilities in his native area.

“For two years physicians thought it was either malaria or meningitis fever,” Abdul Lateef, uncle of Mukhtiyar told Daily Times.

Last week when Mukhtiyar was brought to NICH, country’s only public sector healthcare facility dealing pediatric cancer patients, he was diagnosed with blood cancer.

“Mukhtiyar may not have been at risk today if he had been timely diagnosed around four to five months ago,” Dr Uzma Imam, In Charge Pediatric Oncology Department, Child Caner Centre NICH told this scribe.

“70 per cent cases of blood cancer can be cured if treatment starts on time,” Dr Uzma added.

Like other parts of the world, blood cancer is most common in childhood cancers in Pakistan. However due to the non-availability of cancer registry in the country, actual number of cases are unknown.

Childhood cancer among children aged upto 15 years is estimated at one per cent of the total cancer patients in the country.

Cancer treatment facility is being run under public-private partnership with Child Aid Association, a non-profit organization providing free-of-cost treatment.

According to officials, apart from other parts of the province, patients also come from Balochistan and Punjab. Some patients even come from bordering countries including Afghanistan and Iran.

The treatment includes medicines, operation, biopsy, computerized tomography (CT) scan etc. We are treating 500 to 600 cancer patients annually and around Rs 500,000 is being spent on every patient, Dr Uzma said.

At present, the total capacity of in house admissions stands at 12 while the capacity for chemotherapy stands at 15. However, management is trying to double the capacity.

“We are trying to enhance the space of the hospital. We will plan for next 20 to 30 years,” said Professor Nizamul Hassan, the president of Child Aid Association.

Professor Hassan also pointed out that there is no lounge at presently available for the attendants at the health facility.

“Treatment of blood cancer takes around three-and-a-half-years. Due to non availability of residential facility for attendants, some parents/ relatives take their patients back to native areas because they cannot manage a place to reside in Karachi,” the professor added.