MORE than 9,000 persons are being treated for thalassaemia in public hospitals, with each patient chalking up treatment costs of around RM3mil each from infancy until they reach 40, says Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad.
The Health Minister said 9,554 patients are currently receiving treatment at public hospitals nationwide, with standard treatment including regular blood transfusions, chelation therapy to control iron overload, and other supportive clinical care.
Dzulkefly said that although gene therapy is the latest treatment option, its high cost remains a major challenge in treating this form of inherited blood disorder.
“A one-time curative treatment costs between RM10mil and RM13mil per patient,” he said during Question Time in Dewan Rakyat.
Gene therapy is a treatment method in which a patient’s own stem cells are extracted and genetically modified in a laboratory before being reinfused into the body.
He added that the ministry have also been using Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT) to treat patients.
Currently, HSCT services are available at Hospital Tunku Azizah and Hospital Wanita dan Kanak-Kanak Sabah.
“A total of 212 thalassaemia patients have been cured through HSCT since 2007.
“The cost of HSCT for one patient ranges between RM100,000 and RM120,000,” he said as he responded to a question from Datuk Dr Ahmad Yunus Hairi (PN-Kuala Langat) for updates on how Malaysia’s public healthcare system is handling thalassaemia patients.
Dzulkefly explained that thalassaemia is a genetic disease in which parents may be carriers.
“If both parents are carriers, one in four children may have thalassaemia,” he said.
“Hence, it is important to strengthen genetic counselling so that parents understand the probability of their children inheriting thalassaemia,” he said, adding that more than two million students have been screened for thalassaemia in schools, with 57,910 students confirmed as thalassaemia carriers.
