Research Chelation Therapy

Dubai: A new medicine to treat the effects of thalassaemia, a genetic blood disorder, became available nationwide yesterday, with about 70 patients eligible to receive the new treatment.

The long-awaited drug Exjade by Novartis Oncology, which removes excess iron from thalassaemia patients’ systems caused frequent blood transfusions, has been in limited use in the UAE for two months at Shaikh Khalifa Medical City.

Staff at the Genetic and Thalassaemia Centre at Al Wasl Hospital, told Gulf News that 70 patients could go on the medication after completing health examinations. Dr Khowla Belhoul, director of the centre, said about 100 patients at the centre were asked to undergo a battery of tests, including blood tests.

Freedom

“This drug is new, so we don’t know what the long-term effects are,” she said.

She said patients at the centre, who wished to go on the medication, would receive it within months after all the requisite health checkups.

Khowla Mohammad, a 25-year old housewife from the UAE, was the first patient at the centre to receive the medicine. The previous iron chelation treatment, which required her to wear a pump attached to her blood vessels for up to 12 hours was “a difficult routine” she said.

“It was time-consuming. It took a long time for me to prepare the solution; it was painful, my skin near the pump was affected.”

As for Mohammad Wajid, a 17-year-old patient from Pakistan, the drug means freedom. He told Gulf News he was not very good at complying with the previous treatment due to embarrassment and stigma.

“I would only use the pump when I was at home and nobody could see me.”