Health experts and philanthropists on Friday urged people to undergo early screening before marriage and during pregnancy for protecting future generations from Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), which causes lifelong disability.
They were speaking at a gathering organized to find ways to make the expensive treatment of the disease available to everyone in Pakistan and to end it by taking preventative measures.
The event “Curing the Incurable” on Thursday was organized by the Strive Trust, a not-for-profit organization working to improve the quality of life of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs).
Dr Salman Kirmani, Genetics Specialist and Associate Professor at Agha Khan University said, “No matter how hard we try, it will be difficult to provide treatment to all.”
The best solution was to prevent future generations from contracting this disease by early screening, he stressed. He said its ratio in the West was one in 10,000 children but here it can be one in 6,000 due to cousin marriages.
