Thalassemia activist pedalled 800 kilometre to create awareness about disease

|HT|

A labourer turned Thalassemia activist from West Bengal, Shyama Prasad Dutt Roy pedalled a distance of nearly 800 kilometres from Alipurduar in West Bengal on his bicycle to reach Patna in Bihar on Saturday, completing a leg of his nationwide campaign to create awareness about the disease as he meets Thalassemia patients and their families. Thalassemia is a hereditary blood disorder, which results in lower than normal amounts of oxygen carrying protein (haemoglobin) in blood and some of its patients have to often go through blood transfusions to survive. People who are carriers of a thalassemia gene show no symptoms and might not know they’re carriers. If both parents are carriers, they can pass the disease to their kids.

Roy says he wants to tell parents of potential brides and grooms that they must understand the importance of conducting tests to ensure the would be couple is not Thalassemia minor.

There are nearly 4,000 Thalassemia patients in Bihar. Recently, the state government started a day care centre at the Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) for consultation, blood transfusion and treatment for Thalassemia patients.

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