Eight-year-old Abdul Rehman is not like other children. At least once in a month he has to go from Macherla, Guntur district, to the city for getting a blood transfusion. His father Riyaz, who ekes out a living stitching gunny bags, has to miss at least two days of work to take him to Vijayawada for the transfusion.
Rehman endures the needle pricks in his arm because he feels more energetic after transfusion. The money needed for Chelating medication, which works out to Rs 6,000 a month, is a big burden for Riyaz.
The story of five-year-old Raju, son of a lorry owner from Chikkalapalem village in West Godavari district, is similar. His father Ramakrishna has to take him to Vijayawada once a month for blood transfusion.
Venkateswara Rao, an electrician from Katuru village near Vuyyuru, has to forgo wages for two to three days to bring his 13-year-old daughter Poojitha to Vijayawada for blood transfusion. He almost never has the money needed to buy one month Chelating drugs at one time and therefore has to make more trips to the city.
These three children were born with thalassaemia. In layman’s terms, the blood of people with thalassaemia does not work normally. Children with the disease rarely see adulthood.
They depend on periodic blood transfusion to survive. Otherwise they become very sick and die. Besides needing blood transfusion, the kids suffer iron overloading, infection, bone deformities, enlarged spleen and also develop growth and heart problems. The kids have to undergo frequent tests and take medication to prevent all these problems and not become sick.
After bifurcation, Vijayawada has become the blood transfusion destination f+or thalassaemic children. SAPTHA Foundation, formed to help these children, has 224 children from the age of four months to 18 years registered with it.
Founder-chairman of the foundation V. Sharath Babu says that coming to Vijayawada for blood transfusion, tests and medication frequently is a formidable task for parents who work on daily wages. Some of them have to forfeit three days of wage to bring their child, he says.
The only sustainable solution to this is to help children get bone marrow transplantation (BMT), but awareness about this is very poor among the people, he says. The foundation was therefore conducting a one-day clinical awareness programme on the disease with focus on “Possibility of BMT in Transfusion Dependent Thalassaemia” at I V Palace on Sunday, Mr. Sharath Babu said.
