KARACHI: Every month Sakeena Khatoon, a middle aged woman from Karachi’s Korangi; 100-Quarters area takes her three daughters for blood transfusion to a charity Thalassaemic centre situated at Gulshan-e-Iqbal. Apart from her three thalassaemic-major daughters aged between six to eleven years, her remaining three sons are Thalassaemic minor. Sakeena and her husband Taseen Muhammad Ismail, both thalassemia carriers did not go for pre-marriage blood tests, a mandatory test now in province after the passing of ‘Sindh Prevention and Control of Thalassemia Bill, 2013, advising both groom and bride to ensure that they not carrying the Thalassemia trait. However if two people carrying the Thalassemia trait get married, there is a 25 per cent chance that their children will have the dangerous Thalassemia Major disease. “My family is very poor as my husband is driver by profession. Not for the patients only, is it a very painful exercise for my family as well, to go through the transfusion thrice a month on average,” Sakeena said. As she cold not afford, all three daughters of Sakeena are among many of the families who are supported by NGOs working for blood transfusion in the city. Thalassemia is an inherited disorder. It leads to the decreased production and increased destruction of red blood cells. According to Thalassemia Federation of Pakistan, every year there are around 1000 new cases being registered in Karachi with country’s estimated total of 7000 cases per anum. “There are around 6000 registered cases of thalesmic children at 8 private tahalesmic centers in Karachi. There is no Thalassemia ward in all of the metropolis in any governmental hospital,” said Lt Gen (R) Moinuddin Haider, President Thalassemia Federation of Pakistan. “However Sindh Government has started the financing recently by sharing cost of the treatment in few private thalesmic centers while the management has been handed over to NGOs,” Moinuddin Haider added. Although there has been no confirmation of the number of thalemsima patients in Pakistan but according to estimates there are around 100,000 thalemsima patients in country which require around two million 450 milliliter’s blood bags and related medicines. Health expert think that due to non-preventive measures, Thalassemia is on rise. “Two years back, at Kashif Iqbal Thalassemia Care Center (KITCC), there were around 200 thelemiac children registered. The number has risen to 500 now,” said CEO KITCC Muhammad Iqbal, father of late Kashif Iqbal, who fought with Thalassemia disease at till the age of 16 in London, lost his life and died on March 1996. Lives of thalassaemic patients totally depend upon blood donations. A lot of charity organizations, are running ‘adopt-a-child’ facility for poor children offering well-being to contribute in philanthropy. “There is strong need to create awareness in the society for blood donation. Because of lack of awareness, we do not have the culture for volunteer blood donation,” said Obaid Hashmi, CEO Omair Sana Foundation (OSF). Other factor attributing to less contributing towards blood is people think they could be ill, this factor can be removed by awareness campaign, Hashmi added. Among the volunteers, Patients Welfare Association is the one which is working in Civil Hospital Karachi. The organization is administered by students of Dow Medical College is at the moment which is catering around 278 thalesmiaic children. But this volunteer organization stresses on more participation level from the people. “We face problems while collecting blood from donors,” said Junaid Razzak resourse GM of PWA. Since blood is to be obtained only from human body, therefore we expect more participation level from the masses to overcome our requirements.