RASC: Health officials in Kandahar province say that the number of patients with thalassemia is increasing recently.
The family of one of the sick children who visited the hospital says that most of the time there is no blood in the blood bank of the hospital and they have to ask the public to donate blood for their sick child.
The blood bank is very crowded and many applicants wait for hours to receive blood. The mother of six-year-old Anis has to bring her daughter to the hospital twice a month to receive blood.
She says she lost her other three children due to blood thalassemia.
Children with thalassemia need fresh blood, therefore, most of the time; blood is not available in the hospital blood bank.
The families of the children who visited Mirwais Hospital are asking the public to help donate blood to their sick children.
Officials at Mirwais Regional Hospital say that last year the number of children with thalassemia reached 850 and 13,500 units of blood were donated to children with thalassemia.
At the same time, health officials say that from time to time, they start a blood collection campaign for children who are suffering from thalassemia disease.
Thalassemia disease is a type of hereditary or genetic anemia that is passed from parents to children, and most patients with thalassemia are children between one and twelve years old.
Health officials say that the basic treatment for thalassemia patients is bone marrow transplantation, which public health is not able to do because of its high cost. It is said that each bone marrow transplant costs thirty thousand Dollars.
