Thalassaemia: Costly to do screening for everybody
Published on: Saturday, November 01, 2014
KOTA KINABALU: Early detection of thalassaemia can be more effective if screenings are conducted directly on students. As thalassaemia is the commonest single gene disorder in the country, there had been no solid effort to boost detection in such manner. Based on the Health Ministry report in 2011, one of the proven methods towards prevention is through screening of 15 to 16-year-old students. ADVERTISEMENT Health Director Dr Christina Rundi on Friday concurred that annual screening on students are effective, but the exorbitant cost of running such programme is limiting the department's effort. For now, the department is left with working with any agencies, including non-governmental organisations, on running awareness campaigns, apart from free screening to walk-in targeted groups. "So as far as the Health Department is concerned, if other agencies want to conduct an awareness campaign, they can contact us," she told the Daily Express, here. "We cannot do screening for everybody as that will be costly but we need to screen family members and relatives of those with the genetic disorder so that adequate counselling can be instituted earlier," she added. ADVERTISEMENT Since the execution of the National Thalassaemia Registry in 2007, as of Dec 31 2012, Sabah recorded the highest number of patients in the country with 2,719, against 5,859 patients nationwide. The data also showed Sabah topped the number of carriers with 21,305 out of 45,622 patients in the country.
ADVERTISEMENT
An executive summary of the Health Ministry Thalassaemia management report published in 2011 also read, "Sabah appears to have the higher incidence of thalassaemia major, with 676 cases registered with the Thalassaemia Association." A 2013 statistic from the Health Department, which showed the number of carriers by districts, revealed Tenom as being the highest with 11.4 per cent. It is followed by Beaufort (11.3 per cent), Keningau (8.2 per cent), Penampang (6.8 per cent), Kota Marudu (6.2 per cent), Kuala Penyu (5.8 per cent), Nabawan (5.7 per cent), Ranau (5.2 per cent), Kota Belud (4.1 per cent), Kinabatangan (3 per cent) and other districts recorded a prevalence of under 2 per cent. Last year, 82,932 individuals underwent the screening and about 4 per cent of the number had been confirmed as carriers.The Health Ministry had also conducted the screenings in all 37 national service camps across the country, including the six camps in Sabah last August 2013. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
Daily Express Malaysia
Universiti Institut Teknologi Mara (UiTM) appeared to be the first institution, which had so far held a smart partnership with the Health Department on the programme.Rundi indicated the UiTM foray, which also involved students from Universiti Malaysia Sabah, can be an annual affair if other agencies lend a helping hand in the effort.