Hard work to avoid the scourge of thalassaemia

Dubai’s awareness campaigns about thalassaemia have almost eliminated the disorder’s incidence

A Sharjah University Mens College student undergoes a test for thalassaemia. Photo: Paulo Vecina / The National

The prospect of eradicating a disease ranks among the greatest aspirations of modern science. Smallpox claimed millions of lives before global vaccination eliminated it in the 1970s and similar success with polio has come tantalisingly close. However, for some diseases and disorders, doctors can only manage the incidence and treat the effects.

One of these is thalassaemia, a potentially fatal blood disorder that is over-represented among Arab populations and others of Mediterranean descent. Its genetic provenance means that a child has a one in four chance of being born with it if both parents carry the recessive gene, even though the mother or the father might never have displayed symptoms.

As The National reported yesterday, this background makes thalassaemia relatively easy to avoid but difficult to manage, requiring a vast and comprehensive screening programme to alert prospective parents who will often be completely unaware they each carry the recessive gene.

All this demonstrates the Dubai Health Authority’s achievement in almost entirely eradicating the disorder among new borns. Thanks to an education campaign and compulsory pre-marriage genetic screening, only a handful of babies have been born with thalassaemia over the past three to four years, compared to the previous annual rate of 14 to 18.

There were few shortcuts available. Last year, for example, 54 schools, two universities and 11 government departments visited the authority’s thalassaemia centre to learn about it. Awareness campaigns were also held at five malls, eight government institutions and two universities.

Nor would the message have been an easy one to convey to couples who intend to marry: that when both intended husband and wife have the recessive gene, they ought not to wed and have children because of the 25 per cent risk that their offspring will be born with the disorder.

Unlike smallpox, thalassaemia cannot be eradicated through vaccination, so the health authority will have to continue its campaign for the foreseeable future. We should be grateful for its assiduous approach.