Thalassaemia and Socialization For the Community
Thalassaemia is a genetic disorder, so it can be derived from parents to child, although not all their child. For married couples that in fact each had a gene carrier of Thalassaemia, it will have the possibility to have a child who had Thalassaemia by 25%.
According to WHO in 1994, the number of carriers or people with Thalassaemia gene carriers around the world are reached up to 4.5% or approximately 250 million people, where 300 thousand children who are suffering from Thalassaemia are born each year and from that number it’s about 60-70 thousand of them are suffering Thalassaemia major which is required continuously blood transfusion since have been diagnose even though for a baby. And this number has increased so that based on data from WHO, the number of carriers in 2001 reached up to 7% of the world population.
So to increase public awareness about Thalassaemia, it is held the press conference about Thalassaemia Ambassador or Ambassador of Thalasaemia. Thalassaemia ambassador program is a program that aims to educate from patient to patient so as to increase the life expectancy of the people with Thalassaemia.
In this program, the ambassador who is also a Thalassaemia patient educate other patients to improve adherence to obey blood transfusions and also to take iron drugs and motivate patients to keep the spirit alive and have a good quality of life as well as become useful in everyday life.
Image: www.baxterhealthcare.co.uk