Thalassaemia center opened

Thalassaemia center opened

JAKARTA (JP): First Lady Tien Soeharto inaugurated a thalassaemia center at the Cipto Mangunkusumo general hospital here on Saturday.

During the ceremony, she urged rich people to lend a helping hand to the Indonesian Foundation for Thalassaemia to help it in coping with the genetic disease in view of the fact that it is very expensive to treat sufferers.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), it takes US$5,000 up to $7,000 per year to treat a thalassaemia patient optimally. "The expense is beyond the average financial capacity of Indonesian people," Mrs. Tien Soeharto said.

She then appealed to the public to make every effort to prevent the occurrence of thalassaemia by avoiding marriage with people with a history of thalassaemia in their families.

She said she hoped the thalassaemia center can provide information about the genetic disease and help sufferers of thalassaemia and their families.

Head of the Indonesian Foundation for Thalassaemia, R.S. Museno, said that the foundation had arranged for the construction of the first thalassaemia center building in Indonesia. The three-story building standing on an 800-square- meter plot of land and the equipment it contains cost Rp 750 million ($350,000). The funds were collected from donators.

At the moment there are 640 patients being treated at the thalassaemia center. According to data available at the center there are 3,000 thalassaemia sufferers in Jakarta at present.

Dr. Bulan Ginting, a physician at the center explained that a blood test is required to determine whether a person has the disease.

There are two kinds of thalassaemia: minor thalassaemia (thalassaemia trait) and major thalassaemia. "The major thalassaemia is more dangerous because the patient cannot produce red blood cells normally," Bulan said.

He added that medical treatment for thalassaemia patients is carried out through regular blood transfusions every four to six weeks. (29)