RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Pa­tients with in­her­it­ed and se­vere blood dis­or­ders will soon ben­e­fit from ad­di­tion­al fi­nan­cial and med­ical sup­port, says Health Min­is­ter Dr Lack­ram Bo­doe.

Speak­ing at the So­ci­ety for In­her­it­ed and Se­vere Blood Dis­or­ders an­nu­al walkathon at Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day, Dr Bo­doe reaf­firmed the Gov­ern­ment’s sup­port.

“To­day, we walk not just for ex­er­cise or aware­ness, but for every child, adult and fam­i­ly af­fect­ed by con­di­tions such as sick­le cell dis­ease, tha­lassemia and oth­er se­vere blood dis­or­ders. Your pres­ence here is a sym­bol of hope, strength and sol­i­dar­i­ty,” he said.

He praised the so­ci­ety for its con­tin­ued ad­vo­ca­cy and pub­lic out­reach, de­scrib­ing it as a cru­cial voice for those cop­ing with ge­net­ic hema­to­log­i­cal con­di­tions.

“I com­mend the so­ci­ety for con­tin­u­ing to be the voice of and sup­port­ing in­di­vid­u­als liv­ing with these dis­or­ders,” Bo­doe added.

High­light­ing the Min­istry of Health’s pri­or­i­ties, Dr Bo­doe said the man­age­ment of ge­net­ic blood dis­or­ders re­quires “an all-in­clu­sive ap­proach, from ge­net­ic test­ing to psy­cho­log­i­cal and so­cial sup­port.”

He pledged the min­istry’s on­go­ing ded­i­ca­tion to ear­ly di­ag­no­sis, im­proved ac­cess to treat­ment and con­sis­tent, com­pas­sion­ate care.

A ma­jor fo­cus of the min­istry’s ef­forts, he said, is en­sur­ing the avail­abil­i­ty of safe blood and blood prod­ucts.

He al­so an­nounced that amend­ments to the Chil­dren’s Life Fund Act now in­clude sick­le cell dis­ease and be­ta-tha­lassemia on the list of life-lim­it­ing ill­ness­es.

“This in­clu­sion now al­lows the Min­istry of Health to ex­pand the reach of the Chil­dren’s Life Fund to as­sist chil­dren with se­vere cas­es… there­by en­sur­ing im­proved qual­i­ty of life for these pa­tients,” he said.

He closed with a call for uni­ty and con­tin­ued ad­vo­ca­cy, as he thanked the so­ci­ety for its tire­less work ben­e­fit­ing those liv­ing with blood dis­or­ders across Trinidad and To­ba­go.