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)