The Thalassemia Welfare Center, established in 2002, seeks to promote the control of thalassemia through awareness-raising campaigns and to ensure the availability of appropriate treatment to patients with thalassemia in Chittagong, Bangladesh – two goals well served by a regional scientific conference on thalassemia and related disorders held in the city on 27 June 2007.

The Regional Conference on Thalassemia held in Chittagong, Bangladesh brought together leading experts in the field from across South and South East Asia for presentations and discussions covering the full range of issues related to the treatment and control of thalassemia. Professor Suthat Fucharoen, Professor of Medicine at Mahidol University in Bangkok, Thailand, discussed the diagnosis and management of thalassemia and the use of cord blood stem cell therapy as a final cure. Professor Amit Chakravarty and Dr Sudipa Chakravarty, both from the institute of Genetic Engineering and Research in Kolkata, covered the topics of “Genomic Medicine – Future Trends of Clinical Medicine” and “Iron Chelation” respectively.





After the conference, Professor Fucharoen visited the Thalassemia Welfare Center clinic, meeting patients for an informal question-and-answer session.

Source: TIF Magazine, March 2008, Issue no. 52