9-year-old struggles against thalassemia

A curse has befallen on the poor family of Matlib Hussain and Boby Begum of Athkhelia’s Chokial village in Golaghat district since they had discovered that their son is afflicted with the dreaded thalassemia. Their son Muzzaiqir now 9 has been suffering from thalassemia since he was a 24 days old infant. Thalassemia is a group of genetic blood disorders which results in excessive destruction of red blood cells, which leads to anemia. However the parents could not detect at the initial stage what actually ailed their child but as he grew up, both Matlib Hussain and Boby Begum came to know the misfortune that had struck their child. The process of treating thalassemia is being quite expensive and Matlib being a daily wage earner it has been increasingly difficult for him to provide best of treatment to his son.

However, some two years back an operation was carried upon Muzzaqir at Assam Medical College Hospital, Dibrugarh where the villagers and other well wishers contributed generously. But the operation was unsuccessful and Matlib foresees a dark future awaiting his son. Earlier Muzzaqir had to undergo blood transfusion once a month but now a days, he requires blood transfusion every fifteen days. The local villagers whose blood group matches with Muzzaqir’s donate blood to him, thereby keeping him alive for the time being. But such selfless efforts on the part of the villagers need to be assisted by advanced medical technique which Muzzaqir’s family can ill afford. To sum up all we want to say is that Muzzaqir may not be an isolated case there are many others who are probably going through similar misfortune but we hoped that at the time when state health department is launching various exclusive schemes for the upliftment of health care, child patients like Muzzaqir and the others should also be considered and taken care of properly.