Despite there being only one per cent of thalassemia carriers exhibiting the symptoms of the genetic blood disorder, the rate of the disease in Thailand has increased by up to 40 per cent, said the director-general of the ministry's Department of Medical Sciences, Dr Phaijit Varachit. He did not specify the period over which the increase has occurred.

However, he said between 16 million and 24 million Thais - maybe as many as one in every three people - carry the disease in their genes and may pass it on to their children. Of these people, 600,000 show symptoms of the disease.

The chances of children inheriting a serious blood disease from their parents are considerably heightened if both parents carry the trait for the same genetic type of thalassemia.

"[An increase of] 40 per cent is a figure to be very worried about," Phaijit said. "It's a crisis, but to campaign to deter people who carry the disease from getting married to each other sounds like a violation of human rights."

The risk that parents who are carriers of the same type of thalassemia will pass the disease to their children is one in four and the risk in the case parents who carry different types of thalassemia is one in twelve, the doctor said.

The cost of treating a severe case of the disease is very high, he said. Bone marrow transplantation, for example, can cost about Bt1 million per person.

He said the best way to proceed is to encourage couples to have their blood checked to see if they are thalassemia carriers before they have a baby.

To raise public awareness of the importance of checking for thalassemia carriers, the department will hold a three-day academic conference on the disease, starting tomorrow. This conference also aims to broaden knowledge about thalassemia among health workers.

Duangkamon Sajirawattanakul

The Nation